Out of hops! What to do?

Ok so I'm not OUT of hops, but I am brewing a WIT tomorrow which is Christmas Day and the homebrew shop has closed until the day after. I only got one ounce of Styrian Goldings thinking that would suffice but they are very low compared to the average, only 3.2% AA. this puts me at only 15 IBUs if I put them all in for 60 minutes which is lower than I wanted. I have an ounce of simcoe, warrior and chinook in my freezer... Should I use one of these in a very small amount to bump up my IBU's? Or just suck it up and go with what I got. I was planning on a 90 minute boil, would anyone recommend throwing them in for 90 minutes? Thanks

I would use a half oz. of the warrior for bittering, then use the goldings around 15 min. That should work out for you. Just my opinion take it however you like.

I agree.

Thanks! I'll prob do 4 grams of warrior and 1/2 oz of Styrian at 60 min then the other 1/2 oz Styrian at 15 min. That puts me at 23 IBU. I'd like to use as little warrior as possible.

simcoe and chinook are both good for bittering. simcoe is very low in cohumulone and would be pretty smooth.

Thanks for the advice, I went with the 4g of warrior, ill lyk how it turns out. Aside from that, I tried to do an ice bath after my immersion chiller got it down to about 115F and an ice cube fell in! I panicked and brought it back to a boil for 5 min and re chilled. Do any of you foresee this causing any problems?

Sounds like a golden opportunity to make a Gruit beer.

schmeek said:

Thanks for the advice, I went with the 4g of warrior, ill lyk how it turns out. Aside from that, I tried to do an ice bath after my immersion chiller got it down to about 115F and an ice cube fell in! I panicked and brought it back to a boil for 5 min and re chilled. Do any of you foresee this causing any problems?

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You'll be fine. I've dropped random ice cubes into beer in similar situations and never had a problem. I never re boiled either for what it's worth.

I'm a noobie, i know, but maybe bittering is just bittering. I'd bet if you lined up 98.9876% of us up we could NOT tell the difference between this or that hop used at the 60 minute point, even if 86.323% would beg to differ.

Tutsbrew said:

I'm a noobie, i know, but maybe bittering is just bittering. I'd bet if you lined up 98.9876% of us up we could NOT tell the difference between this or that hop used at the 60 minute point, even if 86.323% would beg to differ.

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totally certain that i can tell the difference. im not just parroting what people say on the internet about being "harsher", but i've found it to be true and frankly avoid high AA hops before 60 minutes for lots of medium to light beer styles. i usually spend the extra money and got more, lower AA hops if i'm doing an english or german style

So I checked the gravity today, one week later and it is only at 1.036! It's fermenting at 68 with wlp400 Belgian wit with an OG of 1.048. Pitched a 1.5L starter too, it's showing good signs of fermentation but I figured with an OG that low it would be close to 1.010 by now. I've never monitored my gravities during fermentation, I usually just wait 2 weeks without touching them but I just got a refractometer and going a bit overboard with it. Any reason to worry yet?

nah. you could shake it up a bit if that's possible. or prep some star san and soak your mash paddle in it then stir it up some. just want to agitate the yeast.

if possible you could try warming it up to ~72.

+1 on gentle shaking. Helped a bunch! Thanks!

I thought using a refractometer when alcohol is present is not the most accurate way to read gravity?

I know there are some conversion calculators, but I thought they can vary greatly.

Really? It's a new tool to me so I am not sure.

Refractometers are not accurate after fermentation begins. You can look up the conversions to get a ballpark but only a hydro reading will be accurate.

According to http://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/ you are at 1.022 with estimated alcohol correction