over diluted batch, low starting gravity

[RomanRider]

Well I had my first boil over. I didn't leave enough head space in my brew pot and she foamed over when I stirred it a few minutes into the boil after first hops addition. What a mess, I lost probably 1/2 gallon or more of wort due to that boil over, all over the stove top and floor. :smack:

So after mopping up the stove top with paper towels, I put the pot back on and continued the boil where I left off. After cooling the wort and transferring into the fermenter I topped up with water to bring it up to a full 5 gallons without taking into consideration the volume of wort that I lost due to the boil over. THEN I checked the SG and it was only 1.045 where the kit instructions indicate it should have been 1.057-1.061. Am I correct that I added too much water and therefore over diluted it? This is a Brewer's Best kit, pumpkin spice porter.

It's been in primary for 10 days, and the gravity is now about 1.016 which is in the FG range for the kit. It smells and tastes pretty good, although it is definitely not sweet or heavy like I would expect it to be if I had the correct starting gravity. I will be bottle conditioning it so that should add a touch of sweetness to it.

What do you think, should I let it sit in primary a bit longer to see if the gravity drops any further, or just go ahead and bottle it and enjoy my accidental session beer?

Just out of curiosity, at this point is there anything that could be done to make it less weak, more robust?

Also, I wasn't sure what to do about having to interrupt the boil. The pot was off the burner for about 15 minutes during partial cleanup, then I got it back on high heat and when it started boiling again I just continued the timer about where I left off. It doesn't seem to have hurt anything that I can tell.

I'm shopping for a larger pot to do full 5 gal boils! There is a local restaurant auction this Saturday, maybe I can score something there.

 

[twistr25]

It's also possible you didn't really get the extra water mixed in well, that happens alot in partial boils. I think you are better off leaving as is this time and just being more careful next time.

Taking off the boil isn't a big deal, I've had to do that before too.

Definitely shoot for a bigger pot, I have a 30qt I think that just does the trick for 5 gallon batches, but bigger is always better

 

[JohnSand]

You could add sugar, or extract and boiled water to your fermenter. Use a brew calculator to do the math. It's common in some styles to add sugar during fermentation. I've added LME, water and hops to correct a hop usage error. Expect another krausen.

 

[Mare_Mortis]

+1 on the mixing (or lack thereof)

 

[E_Marquez]

My fellow beginner suggestions are.
1st: Leave it, you made beer, drink and enjoy what you did make, learn from it move on.
2nd: Unless you thoroughly mixed the wort and top off water (think blender or mixer for a few minutes) likely your gravity reading was off (on the light side)
3rd: get a bigger pot.... it allows for an extra measure of newbe screw-up without the mess. As well as gives you more options as you want to try a mini mash (partial grain boil) or later in AG, a pot to use for sparg water, ect

 

[RomanRider]

Thanks for all the replies.
I am quite thorough with my mixing so I don't think my SG was too far off on the light side.

So after about 1 week in primary I checked the gravity and it was just about at the FG listed for the kit. The sample smelled and tasted fantastic. I decided to let it stay in primary a little longer to make sure it was done (I normally leave a batch in primary for about 2 wks, I also normally do not rack to secondary based on some things I've read on here.)

But something happened between week 1 and week 2 and I do not know what. After about 2 weeks in primary I cleaned all my bottles and equipment and got ready to bottle. Boiled my priming sugar, popped the cover off of the primary and took a nice whiff to enjoy the pumpkin spicy aroma, and the beer had a kind of rubber or plastic smell to it, the best I can describe it is like the smell of a plastic adhesive bandage (Band Aid). I was not happy but continued, adding the priming sugar solution to the bottling bucket and siphoned the beer into it. After siphoning, I stirred the beer and it foamed up! I've never had that happen before. I bottled the beer, packed into cases, and let it rest in the basement.

It's been bottle conditioning for 2 weeks so I put a couple of bottles in the fridge and after a day to cool I tried one last night. Nice, normal amount of carbonation, but it still has the plastic smell, and also an off flavor. The pumpkin spice porter taste is there in the background but it was ruined by whatever the foreground flavor is.

From what I've read about never giving up on a batch I plan to just forget about it in the basement and try one after a month or so, and just keep checking every once and a while.

Does anyone have any ideas what could have caused the rubber or plastic aroma and off flavor? I always use plastic Ale Pails for my fermenters and am pretty meticulous IMO about cleaning and sanitation. I wonder if I contaminated it somehow when I tested the gravity at the end of week 1. *** I just did some searching about band aid smell and see many threads about it. Haven't read many of them yet but it sounds like I may have an infected beer. My water comes from the well. I use 2 step cleaning/sanitation. But maybe I wasn't careful enough when I did my mid-ferment gravity check. I don't normally do that, I just wait a couple of weeks and hope it is done.

 

[twistr25]

Plastic (Phenolic)
Band-aid, electrical tape, styrene
Check for infection. Check yeast strain and health. Lower fermentation temperature.

Could also be a little high in the ferment depart or old yeast if you are sure you were sanitary.

 

[Hang Glider]

Also, chlorine or chloramines in your water can cause this flavor. I've been there, now I splurge on bottled spring water (never liked my city water anyway).

 

[RomanRider]

Plastic (Phenolic)
Band-aid, electrical tape, styrene
Check for infection. Check yeast strain and health. Lower fermentation temperature.

Could also be a little high in the ferment depart or old yeast if you are sure you were sanitary.

How would one check for infection?
Yeast was Safale S-04 that came with the kit. I don't recall if the packet had a date on it but the kit was a recent purchase from the local shop.
Ferment temp was about 68-69 as that was ambient in my basement, probably would do better a few degrees lower? I'm getting there now as it is getting colder here in the Northeast.

Also Hang Glider, it's well water. I used to use spring water bottles from the store but heard that our local ground water is supposed to be good so I've been trying it my last few batches. This is the first off flavor & smell problem I've had.

 

[NewWestBrewer]

How would one check for infection?
Yeast was Safale S-04 that came with the kit. I don't recall if the packet had a date on it but the kit was a recent purchase from the local shop.
Ferment temp was about 68-69 as that was ambient in my basement, probably would do better a few degrees lower? I'm getting there now as it is getting colder here in the Northeast.

Also Hang Glider, it's well water. I used to use spring water bottles from the store but heard that our local ground water is supposed to be good so I've been trying it my last few batches. This is the first off flavor & smell problem I've had.

If your ambient air temp is 68-69 then the actual ferment temp inside the bucket is usually 5-8 degrees higher. Get a large tupperware bucket and fill will water and add frozen water bottles to lower and maintain temps. You want the actually ferment temp to generally be 62-68 degrees.