New to brewing

[Gladiator7329]

Hello. I just made my first batch of Kolsch from a kit. After I strained the wort and prepared to close the lid and begin fermentation, I saw my unopened Wheat DME sitting there. I put in the Pilsen DME but completely missed the Wheat. Is this batch going to work or am I better off dumping it out and starting over with another kit? Thanks for the help.

 

[Jag75]

Boil up some water and mix DME . Then add to your fermenter.

Welcome to Homebrew Talk !

 

[Stormcrow]

If you don't do what jag said above and just let it ride, you'll probably just wind up with a lower abv beer that's not the style you were shooting for. It will be beer though, and perhaps not a bad one. Did you measure the specific gravity of what went into the fermenter?

 

[Gladiator7329]

If you don't do what jag said above and just let it ride, you'll probably just wind up with a lower abv beer that's not the style you were shooting for. It will be beer though, and perhaps not a bad one. Did you measure the specific gravity of what went into the fermenter?

I did not measure the gravity and to be honest, I don’t even know how to do that. I got this as a gift and with all this time on my hands I just figured I would give it a shot.

 

[Gladiator7329]

Boil up some water and mix DME . Then add to your fermenter.

Welcome to Homebrew Talk !

Thanks for the tip.

 

[Jag75]

Kits are gonna be pretty spot on with their predictions. In your instructions it should say what the OG and FG should be . Do you have a hydrometer? You will need this to check the gravity .

If you added the DME like I suggested then I'd expect the OG to be what the kit says . Your FG is very important, especially if your going to bottle . Bottling beer too soon could cause bottle bombs.

Formula for figuring out your abv is taking your OG - FG x131.25. For instance

OG = 1.050 - FG 1.010 = .04 x 131.25 = 5.25 abv

 

[Stormcrow]

I did not measure the gravity and to be honest, I don’t even know how to do that. I got this as a gift and with all this time on my hands I just figured I would give it a shot.

I hear that. If brewing turns out to be something you enjoy, you've definitely found the right forum. There's a ton of information here. One of the next things you might want to invest in is a hydrometer for testing gravity. You can get them pretty cheap. It's just a tall glass bobber that you float in a sample and read the scale on it. Using one helps you confirm that your brew is on track. Later on, it will help confirm when fermentation is over and can be used to figure the apparent abv.

 

[Stormcrow]

Kits are gonna be pretty spot on with their predictions. In your instructions it should say what the OG and FG should be . Do you have a hydrometer? You will need this to check the gravity .

If you added the DME like I suggested then I'd expect the OG to be what the kit says . Your FG is very important, especially if your going to bottle . Bottling beer too soon could cause bottle bombs.

Formula for figuring out your abv is taking your OG - FG x131.25. For instance

OG = 1.050 - FG 1.010 = .04 x 131.25 = 5.25 abv

Just to add to this and my other post, there are a lot of apps and free calculators online where you can enter the numbers from your hydrometer and they'll do the math for you in an instant.

 

[VikeMan]

If you added the DME like I suggested then I'd expect the OG to be what the kit says .

But... if he had already topped up to 5 gallons (or whatever) in the fermenter, the DME and the water he boils it in are both going to add volume, so OG will probably be short compared to the kit specs.

 

[Jag75]

But... if he had already topped up to 5 gallons (or whatever) in the fermenter, the DME and the water he boils it in are both going to add volume, so OG will probably be short compared to the kit specs.

Yes that's true , usually those kits have a range of predicted OG and FG . It really depends on how much water is used to boil the DME . Since its already been pitched the OG is a lost cause .the FG is where the focus should be now.

 

[Gladiator7329]

I snapped a photo of the OG and FG amounts. What I ended up doing was boiling half a gallon of water with the wheat DME. I added that to my gallon jug so it’s now a little over a gallon because it boiled off a good amount of the water. I’ll have to pick up a hydrometer because I do not have one. Thanks for all the help and tips. Hope it works. I definitely don’t need any bottle bombs.

 

[ncbrewer]

I’ll have to pick up a hydrometer because I do not have one.

With extract batches, OG is pretty much determined by the ingredients. There is some variation due to specialty grains, but that is very little. I just use a bottling hydrometer for checking FG. It only goes up to 1.040, and it has hash marks every 0.0005 units - that gives very good accuracy for being sure the gravity is stable before bottling. If you bottle before fermentation is finished it will continue in the bottle and may cause bottle bombs.