I messed up what do you think?

Hey guys I am brewing Midwests Irish stout for my second brew. Everything was going great and I had the wort with the water in the carboys when I noticed I forgot the hops that I was supposed to add the last 2 mins of the boil. I then took the whole 5 gallons and re boiled it and added the hops. It is cooling now and I am going to take a gravity reading before I pitch the yeast when it cools down. It took 20 mins to re boil and I'm worried I screwed up the whole batch and I feel like a dummy. To add to the ingredients I added a package of brown sugar to bring up abv and for taste. What do you guys think? Did I screw up the whole batch. I will never give up on a brew and will let this one sit even though I wanted it to be ready for St. Pattys day.

I bet you'll be fine. Maybe you've even discovered a new technique: double boiled brew.

By the way when I said carboys I meant carboy and when I added the brown sugar it was in the original boil. Any help or comments are welcome.

WUTAH said:

By the way when I said carboys I meant carboy and when I added the brown sugar it was in the original boil. Any help or comments are welcome.

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Often when adding pure sugar it is recommended to add to the fermenter at the tail end of fermentation. This is because the yeast will go for the least complex sugars first. If there is brown sugar in the fermenter, then that is the least complex. The yeast could "tire out" before they are finished with the more complex sugars provided by the malt. This could lead to under attenuation. I have done this before with Belgian candy sugar. I don't think the result was that bad, but I heard the advice on timing after the fact. All told I still think your brew will turn out fine. Let us know so we can all learn!

done the same. it's all good

After taking a reading it is in the "wine" OG reading. Hmmmm

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So my original gravity came out extremely high I hope it still turns out well. When should I do another reading? I'm thinking when it looks like it has finished fermenting. I tasted the gravity reading beer and it was pretty sweet with a bitter hoppy nose.

If that is your Original Gravity, I'm reading 1.020, it appears your efficiency is low, or you added too much top-off water. DONT just take my word here, think it through.

You could add some liquid malt extract. There are other things you can add too. I suppose you are done and packed up and it's in the fermentor waiting for signs of bubbling.

Looks tasty though. Keep us posted.

Second opinions please?

I also got this on the hydrometer but it was more around 80 and +2 what would my OG mean then because I'm new and I guess I don't understand it all yet.

The last picture is a thermometer. You can calculate your adjusted specific gravity if your temperature is high or low.


https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/formula-specific-gravity-any-temperature-50004/

Was the picture you showed earlier with the hygrometer your initial reading after boiling and cooling your wort?

Thanks for the reply and the link. I will read it tomorrow and try to figure out the true gravity via that temp reading. The OG was taken after the 2nd boil after it had cooled down to the temp that is pictured above. I looked today and I had quite the krausen build up.

I would put that carboy higher than the blow-off jar.. (or at least have them both on the floor at the same level)

If, for some reason, you get suck-back, I'd be worried about starting a siphon effect and pulling the crap from the jar back into the carboy.

Not sure if that could actually happen, but i'm a worrier

Good advice. I will raise it a bit tonight as I can see your point looking at the pic.

Something is not adding up with your readings, but the picture indicates to me that everything is going the way it should.

I just think I'm not understanding what you are trying to ask/tell us.

That much krausen - you have plenty of fermentables. What does it smell like?

It smells like when it was in the boil. I was just wanting to see if someone else had done this and why my reading came up so crazy high. I have a feeling it will work out well. thanks all for the advice!

So I took a reading tonight after 16 days in the primary and my OG was 1.082 and I got a 1.023 FG. It tastes pretty strong with alcohol up front and is a little sweet and didn't taste so well but not terrible. I was going to rack to secondary sunday but I think I am going to keep it in the primary for 2 or 3 more weeks to see if the yeast can clean up the taste. If anyone has any more advice it is welcomed!

Other than staying away from brown sugar in the future, I'd say you did just fine. Amazing what you can get away with while brewing your own beer and I've done much worse when I was starting out. Pretty sure its as low as it's going to go without some serious adjustments. Don't worry about the numbers so much, as long as it tastes good you did good....

You made beer, bro! RDWHAHB!

Thanks Norsk, I hope giving it time will make it taste better because on my first batch it tasted great at this point and this does not.

Georgia Tiger I had to google it but I love it and will have to use it! Cheers!

WUTAH said:

Georgia Tiger I had to google it but I love it and will have to use it! Cheers!

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WUTAH said:

Thanks Norsk, I hope giving it time will make it taste better because on my first batch it tasted great at this point and this does not.

Georgia Tiger I had to google it but I love it and will have to use it! Cheers!

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All beers have different maturity timeframes. Don't judge a beer when it is still green. I have had beers that tasted like wet dog at the end of fermentation and came out fine with a few weeks conditioning.

Just cracked the first bottle after 2 weeks bottle conditioning and it is disappointing. Flat and full of licorice tastes and burnt flavors maybe time will heal this brew but most likely not with all of my mistakes.