Expert: Alan Ward - 1/13/2005

Question
Hi guys! As you could see in the topic I'm a new to home brewing and of course I have some questions. It's impossible to find malt extract in my homeland Croatia, so I try to make beer with all grains method.
During the first fermentation I haven't used blow-off hose, but an airlock all the time. For three days beer fermented and foam on the top of the wort was full of ‘dirt', hops' remains and other stuff. Now the foam is gone and all the 'dirt' is back to beer.
My question is did I make a big problem not using a blow-off tube and is the solution filtering during bottling? I must say that at the moment my wort doesn't look attractive at all with all those things floating on the top of it. I use a glass carboy so I can see it.
And one more question. There's no any kind of action in the carboy since yesterday. Should I let the wort to rest for a day or two, or I should rack it as soon as possible?
Sorry if my English is not completely understandable and thank you very much for any kind of help.  

Answer
First, your English is much better than my Croatian!



Next, relax everything is on track.  You should see more activity in the first 3 to 5 days.  Most of the time you will see no more bubbles in the secondary.  The trub (all of that ‘dirt') will fall out.  I usually go 4 days primary and 10 in secondary.  If you are only using a primary I would let it sit at least 5 days to allow the trub to fall out.  The secondary stage allows the beer to age and clear. It is not filtering but the result is the same, the beer will clear and begin to look drinkable.



I never use a blow off tube.  Either tube or air lock are fine.



I always brew all grain because you have greater control.  So there is no problem using grain.  I do have a question, did you buy malted grain or did you malt it yourself?  I have known people to malt their own and get great results.



Thinks are right on track.  Relax have a brew.  



If you have any more questions please just let me know.



Alan