Newb Questions

My wife's parents bought me a beer making kit for Christmas, including a True Brew American Wheat extract kit. I brewed the batch two weeks ago and bottled it yesterday. I used bottled water because the water from the tap here is extremely hard. I boiled the kit ingredients in 1.5 gallons of water as instructed and then added 3.5 gallons of water to make ... a bit over five gallons. I forgot to account for the extract.

The batch smelled good so I tried a sip of it while I was bottling. It was completely flat, which I was expecting, but it seemed pretty watery. Will the flavor of the beer perk up during its time in the bottle or is it doomed because I put too much water in the wort? It ins't a huge overfill, maybe a quart of extra volume over five gallons of wort.

Also, my friend made his first batch a few weeks before I got my kit. He made an Oatmeal Cream Stout, and while it was tasty, it was over-carbonated. I have heard this could be from premature bottling. He already drank it all, but if it happens to me is there a remedy?

An extra quart in five gallons wouldn't make a huge difference in the taste. Maybe it was a low gravity beer, or there was a lot of sugar. How much malt extract did you use?

As far as overcarbonation, I've read about brewers carefully cracking the caps open to release some pressure, but don't know any details. It's best to check the gravity twice, two or three days apart to see if it's stable. If the gravity drops in between, it's not ready. Worst case would be bottle bombs.

If the ingredients were for a 5 gallon recipe you are fine. I would boil with more than 1.5 gallons. Boil as much as your kettle will hold without boil-over issues....the more the better, then top up to achieve your final volume.

You will find that the instructions with many kits are not very good, they base everything on number of days which isn't useful with a living organism like beer (yeast). Learn to use your hydrometer and make your decisions based on gravity readings.

Your beer will be fine, it takes a few tastes before you can judge how green beer will turn out, CO2 and aging change things quite a bit.

Hello, your beer will get better after conditioning, wheat beers are suppose to be consumed young, that being said, I have found with my wheat beers they become better (more mouth feel) waiting at least 3 weeks on the gas after kegging.

You and your friend need to take hydrometer reading before you pitch yeast and starting about 10 days after pitching to make sure the beer has finished the fermentation process, I take 3 readings, each about 2 days apart to make sure the gravity is not dropping, then bottle or keg.

Yes it sounds like your friend bottled to soon, or added to much priming sugar, both will over carb a beer.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Edit: 2 other post went up while I was typing, I type way to slow I guess lol

The mouthfeel will change when it's carbed. High carbonation can make it seem thin, but I wouldn't worry about it or pre-judge it too much. It may not be the best beer you've ever had, but it should still be drinkable.

Over carbing can happen for a variety of reasons including bottling too soon. Infection and too much priming sugar are probably the other two most common reasons. You can try venting the bottles by very carefully lifting he cap just enough for some CO2 to escape. Sometimes you have to do that a couple times over a couple days if it's really over carbed.