Forgot the LME

So I brewed up a West Coast Red Ale extract kit today, or at least i thought i did. The recipe called for lme (7lbs) and dme (1lb). Trying to fit brewing into an already busy weekend i didn't review the ingredients list and did realize the lhbs employee sent me home without the lme. Brewed the beer and OG is at 1.010 (suprise suprise). Revisited the recipe and noticed the Lme listed.

My question is, is there anything I can do to salvage this beer? Yeast is pitched and everything. Do I just tack this one up to experience (always review the recipe thoroughly, and before leaving the lhbs apparently)?

Thanks,
Rob

Dump it and start over. It's pretty much just hop water. Was this your first brew?

ktillman1 said:

Dump it and start over. It's pretty much just hop water. Was this your first brew?

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Don't listen to this. Just mix the LME into the fermenter. It is already fully processed not to mention sterile. Otherwise you'll be down DME, hops, yeast, and brew day.

soak the lme containers in really hot water to soften it, just sanitize everything including the outside of the containers your opening and add it to the fermentor.

basiclly treat it like a no-boil kit with a huge starter.

what was your boil volume?

About my 6th brew. 1st with DME and 1st that called for both. In retrospect I should have realized there wasn't enough extract in the mix but...

Two gallon boil. Topped off to 5.5 gallons.

Thanks for the tips. I'll get the lme in today and see what happens.

1 lb of DME in 2 gallons of water is about 1.023 boil gravity.

There's a lot of argument over whether or not DME/LME needs to be boiled at all. The all-grain process requires full volume boils for several reasons, primarily:

1. Reduction of total volume to achieve target gravity.
2. Hot break - removes protein, promotes clarity in finished beer
3. Removal of DMS - DMS produces a corn-like off flavor
4. Isomerization of hop acids to extract bitterness
5. Sanitize the wort

I tend to believe that the process of making malt extract takes care of 1,2 and 3. And, it has to be sanitized in order to be packaged. So that leaves #4.

And that discussion opens an entirely new can of worms by itself. The only way to know for sure is to experiment, like you've done (inadvertently). So please add that extract to your fermentor, and let us all know how it turns out.

bottlebomber said:

Don't listen to this. Just mix the LME into the fermenter. It is already fully processed not to mention sterile. Otherwise you'll be down DME, hops, yeast, and brew day.

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this

I agree with the above, add that lme to the fermentor.

FYI.

Picked up the LME today and did the following:

1. Pulled 0.5 gallons of wort from the fermenter and heat it in a sterile pot with the LME to about 110degrees.
2. Poured the mixture back into the wort and aerated it.

I kept the wort cool after pitching the yeast (62deg) last night so introducing the LME mixture brought the temperature up to the right range for fermentation (~73deg).

New OG is dead nuts on the expected 1.060 so I'm hopeful this will work. I'll report back on how it goes. Thanks again for the advice.

Cool beans. Everything's gonna come up Millhouse. You'll see.

How did it turn out? Hope your enjoying a delicious brew.

Turned out great.

My fermentation environment (old wine fridge) runs a little cool at around 62F, so I gave it a few extra weeks in the primary. Bottled it about two weeks ago and FG was spot on. Cracked open the first one tonight and it went down fast. Think I'll have another. ;-)

Thanks again for the advice. Hope this thread helps someone else down the line.

Cheers,
Rob