If necessity is the mother of invention...

Then idiocy is the mother of desperation.

Here's what I did.

I found the extract DME I was supposed to add to my Wort appoximately 72 hours after I pitched my yeast. This would explain the near absent activity (there still is positive pressure.)

We are now at hour 144. I've let it sit there in disgust.

It appears, however, to be uninfected to the naked eye.

I have more money than time.

Should I, in the interests of the ultimate RDWHAHB, boil the DME and add and perhaps repitch?

Toss?

Other?

BTW: I'm moving on with another batch to lessen the impact of this loss.

Toss it. If money isn't really a problem--you are best in saying goodbye to that batch. It prolly won't taste right anyway.

Use the DME in another batch.

I would add the DME and hope for the best. However, if money is really not an issue, and time is, it may make sense to toss that batch.

I vote to add the DME, to be different if nothing else.

- magno

Is this your Bass clone that you refer to in your sig? I've been wondering how that would turn out. I like Bass Ale. It's often the only decent beer available at some of the restaurants I go to.

You can't get your time back, but just how much money do you have tied up in this failed attempt? $6 or $7 for a liquid yeast? Some hops? You still have the DME, a fairly pricey component of the brew, so that's not a loss. If you put in the wort and the wort won't work, you'll be out more money. You'll be tempted to put in more yeast. More money.

Cut your losses. I say toss it and get a new batch going as quickly as you can. Aren't you getting thirsty?

Aside from the obvious experimental value (eg-letting the rest of us know wether it works), I can see no reason to carry on with that particular batch.

Good luck!

Toss it. Look at it this way- you now have some slightly overpriced DME and a valuable lesson learned!

The REAL question of interest here is: how did you forget to add the malt?

Were you sipping a little too much while brewing?

-walker

PS: I don't mean to bust yer ballz or anything, but that's pretty funny. (I forgot to add bittering hops once.)

Hey, you know if you follow Charlie Papazian's brewing instructions, he has you drinking another home brew at just about every step of the brewing process. You should be well and truly blitzed by the time you finish a brew. It's worked out that way for me twice now. Reminds me of the old Julia Childs French Cooking series where she continually samples the wine...

Simple boil it cool it and pitch it with a good amount of shaking(picture a paint mixer at homedepot( coll it and pitch a new vial or two of yeast

beer4breakfast said:

Is this your Bass clone that you refer to in your sig?

Click to expand...

Yes (sigh).

Walker-san said:

The REAL question of interest here is: how did you forget to add the malt?

Were you sipping a little too much while brewing?

Click to expand...

It may have been football related and so yes there was some of that beer drinking going on.

Actually, I've gotten too comfortable with my set up and process so much so that I haven't had to baby sit the pot. I lay out the stuff and listen for my timer and everything else is on autopilot. The mistake was made in laying out the ingredients. The DME just never made it to the table.

Here's my list of common ingredients that people forget in order of liklihood...Family Feud style.

1. Yeast
2. Hops
3. Grains
4. Malt
5. Water

So, in the unlikely event someone forgets the water, I win the Bonehead Trophy.

Here's what I'm leaning toward doing. In the interests of science, I am going to pull off a Growlers worth and some spare DME an see if I can get the yeast to wake up. The rest will go tho the Drain God.

Having never done a yeast starter or harvested yeast, my question would be: If they yeast become active, can I havest this yeast? Or will there be too few yeasties in the sample?

I've been relatively flucked-up while brewing before, but I can't say that I've ever forgot to put in any of those things. Wow!

Let's see...what have I forgotten to do...forgot to add Irish Moss. Forgot to add Malto Dextrin. Forgot to add gypsum powder. I think that's just about it.

Concentration and attentiveness are the parents of good brew.

I say bottle it now and call it a Coors Light clone :cross:

I forgot to add priming sugar while bottling 2 days ago. Luckily I only bottled like 1 gallon, dumped it back into the bucket, added the priming sugar and moved on. Thanks olllllo for giving me the confidence to step up to admitting my mistake =)

Evets said:

I say bottle it now and call it a Coors Light clone :cross:

Click to expand...

LOL! Great post!

Try adding the boiled dme and maybe add a few hops for aroma .
It may be good or bad but at least you will know in the off chance it happens again.

Eat it. If money is not a prob.

I've dumped most of it but saved a mini experimental batch.
It tasted like you would expect unmalted wort and yeast to. Not spoiled.

I boiled up some DME that I use for bottling while watching the Daily Show and the Colbert report.

I didn't take the time to make a mini-immersion chiller. Just dumped ice cubes in directly. Chilled in seconds.
All other sanitary procedures were observed.



I will consider this a sucess if I see evidence of fermentation.

I may go so far as to carbonate with a soda bottle and a carbonator cap.
That will be unconventional experiment 2.

Let's hope I get that far.

BTW: Bonus if anyone from either Durango or Milwaukee can connect the Carver Brewery to Century Hall.

Use 30 lbs pressure with the carbonator cap and you will be fine. Be sure to squeeze out all the air before you carb. I use the carbonator all the time to carb test batches. It works fine.

I had to remind you of the steps...after all....you did forget to put extract in your wort! Ha! HA!

Epilogue:

I didn't report earlier that I did get the yeast to fire and as you can see I did get fermentation. Recall that I only added enough DME to re-awaken the dormant yeast so the beer was very thin tasting.





Verdict: I think I could have salvaged this beer although I am convinced it would not have been an acceptable Bass clone. The takeaway is though, beer is resilient and if you practice reasonable sanitary practices, you can address any mishap.

As for the Carver breweries relationship to Milwaukee....

Many years ago there was a brew pub on the east side of Milwaukee called Century Hall, a great place to drink and see bands.

A paint store next door started a specatular blaze burning down the Historic Building Century Hall.

Years later, after I had moved to AZ, I spent a week or so in the 4 corners area. In Durango, I was told about a bakery/brew pub called Carver. I noticed that they had framed copies of the Milwaukee Journal featuring the cover story about the Century Hall fire.

It turns out that the Carver boys bought the Lauter Tuns and other equipment from the fire sale.


Imagine drinking beer from the same equipment seperated by a few years and a few hundred miles.

Yeast will survive for 6 months easily. You can always get it to activate it if you add sugar and the yeast has not been killed by temps.

If yeast can sit in a carboy for several months in a secondary without fermentation activity....and you can pitch on top of that yeast cake and it will ferment....then yes.... Yeast is very resilient!