What to do after a disastrous day?

[Feem74]

Weekend before last I decided to move up from off the shelf kit brewing to an extract recipe from the Brewing Classic Styles book. I bought enough for 2 batches - an American Pale Ale and an American Amber. I chose to start with the Amber. I steeped my grains and was ready for the extract. I dropped the extract bucket spilling half of it on the garage floor - Disaster #1. I finished the boil with the extract from my Pale Ale ingredients while I cleaned up the sticky mess, yikes! In my haste to finish the boil with a clean floor I forgot to add my hops at the end of the boil - Disaster #2. I figured it out after I had cooled the wort to pitching temp, and decided to throw it in. With the bus in the ditch why pull my foot of the gas pedal, right? I then took a OG rating. I should have been near target of 1.051, but came up with 1.068 - Disaster #3. I just pitched the yeast, and set it to ferment. Nothing else to do but be prepared to throw it out after a week or so.

After a week of fermenting, my gravity reading is at 1.020. I'll take another reading in a few days to see if is done. What could I have done to get so far off target and I'm I wasting my time trying to keep this batch alive?

 

[Cbaddad]

It will be fine.

Might end up being a "Happy Accident"

That is how some great brews were initially "discovered"

 

[lowtones84]

I wouldn't call any of those things disasters, and I'm sure it will be just fine If you want, you could dry hop with the hops you forgot to put in at the end of the boil once fermentation is done.

 

[RoughandReadyRanch]

I wouldn't call any of those things disasters, and I'm sure it will be just fine If you want, you could dry hop with the hops you forgot to put in at the end of the boil once fermentation is done.

+1 except I think he tossed the hops in already. Either way RDWHAHB and chill. Gonna be tasty assuming you didn't have disaster #4 in the way of poor sanitation. If it isn't sour and it tastes like beer but not the style you were looking for I know a ton of people you can ship bottles to. :fro:

 

[Feem74]

Thanks. If it turns out okay, I'll be surprised and chalk it up as a learning experience. I see a lot of posts about dry hopping, but not sure what it is or what it does for the beer. How do I do that? I have some hops left from my initial purchase and was wondering what to do with them.

 

[unionrdr]

Drt hopping is the best way,imo,to get aroma. When beer is at Fg,& fairly clear,drop in an ounce or two of the same flavor/aroma hops used in the boil.
This way,you have plenty of nose to go with the flavor. I use muslin hop socks for dry hopping to keep the bits contained & out of the bottles. 1 week dry hop is good.
I've had some happy accidents myself,so keep going & see what you wind up with.
Also,try not to think too far ahead on brew/bottling day. That'll help towards not rushing so much to get things done. Less mistakes & jitters that way. Kinda like being slow & methodical. Helps me stay focused & not making mistakes or forgeting things.

 

[Ambrozyne]

Drt hopping is the best way,imo,to get aroma. When beer is at Fg,& fairly clear,drop in an ounce or two of the same flavor/aroma hops used in the boil.
This way,you have plenty of nose to go with the flavor. I use muslin hop socks for dry hopping to keep the bits contained & out of the bottles. 1 week dry hop is good.
I've had some happy accidents myself,so keep going & see what you wind up with.
Also,try not to think too far ahead on brew/bottling day. That'll help towards not rushing so much to get things done. Less mistakes & jitters that way. Kinda like being slow & methodical. Helps me stay focused & not making mistakes or forgeting things.

Uniondr,
When you dryhop, do you need to sanitize the hops somehow? Like boiling them shortly or spraying them with starsan? Throwing fresh hops into a finished beer sounds like a recipe for contamination.

 

[unionrdr]

Uniondr,
When you dryhop, do you need to sanitize the hops somehow? Like boiling them shortly or spraying them with starsan? Throwing fresh hops into a finished beer sounds like a recipe for contamination.

No need to sanitize the hops. They have a preservative quality they add to the beer. That's why hops started getting used in place of gruits some thousand years ago. Took awhile to catch on,but they learned that the beer lasted longer during shipping with hops in it. Besides flavors & aromas.
Anyway,sanitize the hop sock first with some starsan (i do the dunk & squeeze),then fill tie off,& drop'em in. Give them a week after FG & clearing before packaging. for good aroma.

 

[kombat]

Anyway,sanitize the hop sock first with some starsan (i do the dunk & squeeze),then fill tie off,& drop'em in

Or skip the hop sock and just drop the pellets directly into the carboy.

 

[unionrdr]

I don't like the extra trub on the bottom,which can be substantial with several ounces going in. Each ounce of pellets swells to the size of a softball when soaked. Moreso for whole leaf hops. I bag'em to keep that stuff contained & not get into the bottles. A little extra time now makes less hassle later.

 

[kombat]

Hmm, interesting points. I've only ever dryhopped twice (second time is still in the carboy), but the first time went pretty smoothly. I dropped in the pellets (1.5 oz), and they all stayed on top. After a few days, some sunk to the bottom, a few stayed on top, and I had this weird layer of hop matter that stayed about 1 inch below the surface. After a few days, I cold-crashed and added gelatin. When I racked to the keg, I just kept the tip of my autosiphon below the layer of hops still on the surface, and above the hops that had settled at the bottom with the yeast. It only really got a little dicey at the very end, but I ended up with a very clear IPA and didn't really have to leave that much beer behind in the carboy.

 

[unionrdr]

Not bad man,that'll work. But using hop socks,I can get more beer racked over to the bottling bucket. I then built the bottling bucket with the spigot a bit lower than usual so that I don't need to tip it as much to get all but a couple TBSP out. Hey,I'm greedy that way...angel's share my a$$. I want my beer back...

 

[Feem74]

Unionrdr, thanks for the tips. I'm gonna give the dry hop a try. The wort sample I took for the gravity reading has more of a sweet smell than a hop smell. It tasted okay. After a week of dry hop, can I cold crash it to clear it up?

 

[unionrdr]

Sure,many do just that.

 

[5oBrewing]

Did you hit your final volume correctly? If you boiled it down too much that could explain the higher gravity. What temperature did you take the gravity at and did you temperature correct it? If your OG is too high you can always add some clean water that your had previously boiled to lower your OG. There are calculators on the web to determine how much water to add. Also if your OG is too low, you can boil up some DME and buff it back up to where it needs to be.

 

[Ambrozyne]

No need to sanitize the hops. They have a preservative quality they add to the beer. That's why hops started getting used in place of gruits some thousand years ago. Took awhile to catch on,but they learned that the beer lasted longer during shipping with hops in it. Besides flavors & aromas.
Anyway,sanitize the hop sock first with some starsan (i do the dunk & squeeze),then fill tie off,& drop'em in. Give them a week after FG & clearing before packaging. for good aroma.

Uniondr,
Thanks for clarifying that! Will try my first dryhop in my next batch.

 

[Feem74]

Did you hit your final volume correctly? If you boiled it down too much that could explain the higher gravity. What temperature did you take the gravity at and did you temperature correct it? If your OG is too high you can always add some clean water that your had previously boiled to lower your OG. There are calculators on the web to determine how much water to add. Also if your OG is too low, you can boil up some DME and buff it back up to where it needs to be.

My guess as to why I was so high on my OG was due to my boil volume. The recipes from the book call for a 7 gal boil volume. That only leaves me with 1/2 gal head space in my kettle, so I went with 3.5. The book calls for putting 5.5 gal into the fermenter, which I added enough to get to that volume. The temp I took my reading was at 67.