Am I going to get fizzy yellow water?

carrotmalt · 05-16-2009, 08:36 PM

I just tried to brew up the Bee Cave Hause Pale Ale as a half batch. My pot's too small for a full batch, and my immersion chiller sucks, so I basically halved everything. Apparently my boil off was more than what I planned for, so I added bottled water at the end to bring it back up to the after boil amount I was shooting for. I sure wish I had taken an OG before adding water, cause afterwards, I came in at 1.021 (Recipe said it should be 1.051). Once this ferments out, it's supposed to end up around 1.011. That aint far from where it is now! Did I just brew up a dang near non alcoholic beer?

This is only my second all grain, but my first came in pretty close to target. I bought my grain from a different place and I'm wondering if the crush wasn't fine enough. Anyhow, is there anything I can do for this batch, or did I just waste a brew day on an O'Douls clone?

Hugh_Jass · 05-16-2009, 08:53 PM

It is entirely possible that the wort and water were not completely mixed.

RDWHAHB

**CharlosCarlies** · 05-16-2009, 09:50 PM

Did you take a pre-boil gravity reading?

carrotmalt · 05-16-2009, 09:58 PM

No. Should I start doing that. I've just been comparing the after boil and after fermentation gravities to the recipe.

maxbing · 05-17-2009, 10:58 AM

This was my first AG as well. When I did it a added a Gallon too much water. I was worried it would be to watery as well, so I added .5 oz cascade as dry hops. It actually came out decent. Kind of like a light IPA. The Bud light crowd really liked it. I would not make it that way on purpose again. but is was still very drinkable.

carrotmalt · 05-18-2009, 11:25 AM

That's encouraging. There are plenty of Bud Light drinkers in the neighborhood. We'll see how it turns out.

dutchboy62 · 05-18-2009, 11:59 PM

what was the temp when you took your hydro reading

carrotmalt · 05-19-2009, 11:57 AM

74 degrees. My hydro says that it's calibrated at 60. I found a chart online and it looks like the difference might buy me an extra .0015 or so.

carrotmalt · 06-05-2009, 05:38 PM

Well, after two weeks in primary, I bottled with corn sugar. It's been a week since then, and out of curiosity I tried one last night. I don't want to jump the gun here screaming infection, but it was awful. I've read that time heals all beers, but I honestly can't imagine this stuff turning drinkable based on last nights sample. I'm ok with it being weak, but there's a strong alcoholish mediciny taste to it. It's only half a batch, but I'm really going to be disappointed if it's not even drinkable a few weeks from now.

I sampled it when I took the last hydro reading, and could sense a little bit of this taste, but I assumed it was just hop bitterness that would loose it's edge with time. It's much more prominent now. Time will tell I suppose, but I'm getting really frustrated since this is my 4th batch and I still haven't been able to make a beer worth bragging about.

Since this batch is literally half the strength of what I was shooting for, does that mean it's more prone for wild yeast or bacterial infections, or is gravity even related?

**Deuce** · 06-05-2009, 05:52 PM

Your probably just tasting weak green beer. I have never had a beer that tastes the same between bottling and 4 weeks in the bottle.