sidepart
Well-Known Member
Long story ahead, thought I'd fish for some advice here.
Back in September, I brewed a RIS all-grain batch with an OG of 1.125. While sparging, I decided that I had enough wort for my RIS, but it seemed like I was still getting some good wort out of the second runnings. Hey, why not turn this party into a Parti-gyle I thought to myself!
So I did, I managed to run out about 3.5 extra gallons of wort that boiled down to about 3 gallons at an OG 1.065. In my haste, I ran off to the LHBS to grab some yeast to pitch into the baby stout I had just crafted. I settled upon 2 packets of plain old boring Muntons yeast. I also grabbed a package of lactose to add to the wort while it was boiling (to make a milk stout).
After 2 weeks in primary the stout was only at about 1.038...oof that wasn't very much attenuation. But I figured, maybe it's just working slowly...or maybe I screwed something up. Perturbed I put it in a carboy to age for a couple of weeks. Slowly but surely I became less and less pleased with my stout child. Four small lines of what looked like white mold (like tiny mountain ranges) started to form on top of the brew. Many batches had been brewed since, but I neglected and felt disinterested with the idea of bottling what I was starting to be pretty sure was a brew failure.
Skip to tonight. Finally decided to tinker with this unholy liquid that I've let sit in a carboy for the past few months. It doesn't seem to have changed much either. The gravity still reads as 1.038 (1.037 now if you want to split hairs). Bummer. That gives me a stout with a whopping 3.5% ABV. Not even sure if the fermentation was enough to make this liquid safe to drink.
So we come to the conclusion of my story. What do you guys think? Toss it? Bottle it? Salvage it some how? I'm not really that upset either way. I never really intended to run a second batch out of my RIS grains.
I did manage to put my health at risk for science. The beer doesn't smell off in any way. The taste isn't sour or funky or anything. Kind of like coffee roast and hop bitterness.
Back in September, I brewed a RIS all-grain batch with an OG of 1.125. While sparging, I decided that I had enough wort for my RIS, but it seemed like I was still getting some good wort out of the second runnings. Hey, why not turn this party into a Parti-gyle I thought to myself!
So I did, I managed to run out about 3.5 extra gallons of wort that boiled down to about 3 gallons at an OG 1.065. In my haste, I ran off to the LHBS to grab some yeast to pitch into the baby stout I had just crafted. I settled upon 2 packets of plain old boring Muntons yeast. I also grabbed a package of lactose to add to the wort while it was boiling (to make a milk stout).
After 2 weeks in primary the stout was only at about 1.038...oof that wasn't very much attenuation. But I figured, maybe it's just working slowly...or maybe I screwed something up. Perturbed I put it in a carboy to age for a couple of weeks. Slowly but surely I became less and less pleased with my stout child. Four small lines of what looked like white mold (like tiny mountain ranges) started to form on top of the brew. Many batches had been brewed since, but I neglected and felt disinterested with the idea of bottling what I was starting to be pretty sure was a brew failure.
Skip to tonight. Finally decided to tinker with this unholy liquid that I've let sit in a carboy for the past few months. It doesn't seem to have changed much either. The gravity still reads as 1.038 (1.037 now if you want to split hairs). Bummer. That gives me a stout with a whopping 3.5% ABV. Not even sure if the fermentation was enough to make this liquid safe to drink.
So we come to the conclusion of my story. What do you guys think? Toss it? Bottle it? Salvage it some how? I'm not really that upset either way. I never really intended to run a second batch out of my RIS grains.
I did manage to put my health at risk for science. The beer doesn't smell off in any way. The taste isn't sour or funky or anything. Kind of like coffee roast and hop bitterness.
