Forgot 2/3 of my base malt... Any suggestions?

Hey all,

I had my heart set on making BierMuncher's Cream of three crops (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f62/cream-three-crops-cream-ale-66503/) yesterday morning but things came up as the sometimes do and I ended not getting started until around 8PM last night. I don't really have the opportunity to brew again for a few weeks so I figured I would just put in a late night and get this going.

I cut the recipe down to a 5.5g batch such that my grain bill included:

6Lbs 2-row
2Lbs flaked Maize
2Lbs rice
0.5oz Crystal @ 60
0.5oz Willamette @ 60

Mash time/temp, and boil time was still the same as the original recipe.

Everything seemed to go well but I did miss my OG of 1.044 (mine was 1.032). Chalked it up to a using a new mash tun for the first time. I sat down today to calculate out my efficiency from my notes and it is only around 50% I have never had less then 75% so I started trying to figure out what went wrong, I must have made a mistake somewhere...

I weighed out all my grains in the shop before coming in to mash in the kitchen so I thought I would check my balance to see if it was accurate. I got out there only to discover that I missed adding my second bag of grain with 4Lbs of 2-row in it

So I have ~5g of this:

2Lbs 2-row
2Lbs flaked Miaze
2Lbs rice

It is just starting to show signs of fermentation now. Can anyone comment on what this may be like and/or if there is any way to salvage it? Can I mash and boil the wort from the other 4Lbs of two row and add it to my fermenter or is it to late to do anything about it?

Last time I do a late night brew... lol

Thanks for any suggestions!

I also have the ingredients to make a second 5.5g batch of this. Any thoughts about brewing it up with the extra 2-row and then mixing them together for a 10g batch? Is that even possible to do now that the first one is starting to ferment? Or should I just leave it alone and see what happens?

Trying to mash additional grains and adding it will only make a bigger batch of slightly stronger beer and will be a fair amount of work. I would add a very concentrated wort w/ a couple three pounds of LME or DME. Sorry but I can't think of an easy fix here. You could mash the 4 lbs of 2 row and extract say 2 more gallons and boil chill and add that??? good luck?

Thanks for the suggestions! I am not worried about the low ABV, more so about how this will taste. Will missing 4lbs of 2-row have a big impact on the flavor? I don't want this to taste like corn on the cob! lol

Just guessing a bit...but it will taste ultra ultra light.

Ladd said:

I also have the ingredients to make a second 5.5g batch of this. Any thoughts about brewing it up with the extra 2-row and then mixing them together for a 10g batch? Is that even possible to do now that the first one is starting to ferment? Or should I just leave it alone and see what happens?

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Possibly could work....BUT...I would not invest another 5 gallons, time and money to possibly expand the issue to 10 gallons of marginal beer....of course, YMMV and you could brew a medal winner....cheers

You're probably right. I guess I'll just let this one go and see what happens!

A couple pounds of extract would be easy to quick pasturize and add to the fermenter if you can get it FWIW. chill it of course

Ya that may be a good idea to try to balance it back out. I don't have any on hand so I may make a pit stop at my LHBS on the way home from work tomorrow. Thanks again for the suggestions Wilserbrewer, greatly appreciate it! I'll re-post what I have done and how this turns out if you are interested.

I predict you will attempt to save it with a process you dream up, and then the beer you make will be amazing and you won't ever be able to recreate it. :cross:

Is anyone else shocked at the number of threads like this?

I wonder if the same type people forget their babies on top of their hood while strapped into the carseat.

bobbrews said:

Is anyone else shocked at the number of threads like this?

I wonder if the same type people forget their babies on top of their hood while strapped into the carseat.

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Is anyone else shocked at the number if people that come into threads like this where people are asking for help, offer no help to the situation and only criticize the effort of others? I wonder if the same type of people walk into hospitals and say "wow, there sure are a lot of sick people here..."

Not that I feel I have to justify my mistake but to give a little background this is only my fourth all grain batch and I am still learning the ropes (lots more to learn yet!). I am proud to say that the first three went off with out a hitch and one of them was a pumpkin ale which turned out awesome! I was bound to make a mistake at some point and my mistake this time was going forward with a brew late in the day when I was tired. Lesson learned. I highly doubt this will be my last mistake either.

As for this brew, I didn't get a chance to get to the HBS so I guess I am just going to let er go, relax... have a homebrew and not worry about it. Maybe it will be the perfect light beer for my wife that doesn't like beer! lol

Edit for spelling - yes I am neurotic...

Touche, but you should still read and think before you act. Forgetting to add irish moss is one thing... Forgetting to mash 4 lbs. of base malt is another.

And I wouldn't say there are lot of sick people here... That would be stating the obvious. Kinda different in this case where you just neglected something crucial because you rushed it. More like me walking into a hospital and seeing a doctor perform surgery without gloves on and calling him out on it. Then he says, "Oh I forgot, sorry... how do I fix it?"

Truth is that there are far too many new brewers that post questions like this and it is just a pet peeve of mine when people don't care about quality and do not take things seriously. Some people just want to rush to make alcohol in a week to get wasted on. I'm not sympathetic to those types. Strive to make good beer and put some thought into it.

In closing, you can do a simple search of the word "forgot" or the phrase "forgot to add". You'll find a ton of threads similiar to this one. Also, let me remind you that this thread was NOT posted in the Beginner Brewers section.

Ladd said:

As for this brew, I didn't get a chance to get to the HBS so I guess I am just going to let er go, relax... have a homebrew and not worry about it. Maybe it will be the perfect light beer for my wife that doesn't like beer! lol

...

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It's not too late to add more fermentables FWIW...

wilserbrewer said:

It's not too late to add more fermentables FWIW...

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If I get a chance to get in to my HBS today, I'll pick some up and give this a try. Thanks!

Bobbrews, if I was rushing to make alcohol in a week to get wasted on, do you think I would be brewing all grain, the most complicated brewing method? Besides I mentioned in a later post that I don't care about low ABV (which is rather important if you are looking to just get wasted...), only how it was going to taste. Did you even read the thread before jumping in with your comment?

Also, to avoid the "do a search" flaming, I did search first but couldn't find anyone with a "I forgot to add base malt" mistake. It seemed like a pretty unique problem (leave it to me... lol). I am also not sure why you need to forum police me by "reminding" me that this is not the beginner brewing forum. I didn't say I was a beginner brewer, I said I was new to all grain. This is an all grain brewing problem/question which would not change whether I had one day or 20 years of all grain brewing experience. As for you pet peeve, if threads like this bother you, why do you click on them? Comments like that only seem intended to try to make other people feel stupid when they make mistakes, which is definately not going to encourage people to ask for help.

I'm normally pretty good at just ignoring stuff like that (as I should have) but your "I wonder if the same type people forget their babies on top of their hood while strapped into the carseat. " comment really bothered me. Forgetting to add an ingredient to a recipe during a process that is still fairly new to me (all for pleasure by the way) is a world away in difference from forgetting about a childs life...

I am not trying to make enemies with you and have no interest in a flame war. Please don't try to make me look or feel stupid - I can do that well enough on my own I may have made a stupid mistake but that doesn't mean I am stupid. I am only looking for help with my beer. If you can help me I would appreciate your advice . If you don't want to help, please don't post in my thread

I agree Ladd I bet you are the only one who has forgot an ingredient.

high5apparatus said:

I predict you will attempt to save it with a process you dream up, and then the beer you make will be amazing and you won't ever be able to recreate it. :cross:

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It will become a new technique known worldwide.

The 50/50 brew. Brew half, then brew the other half and pour it in after fermentation is complete.

Actually im sure someone has done this already.