I made too much beer!!!!

Impossible for some perhaps, but i kinda screwed up! I mashed 8 pounds of grain and forgot to add my LME until everything was in the primary. So i "melted' the LME with some water on the stove to dissolve, and added that into the primary as well. I ended up with 6 gallons at 1.072 and i figured i'd have a good gallon of trub since my last 3 PM's left me with about 4 gallons of usable beer. Now i'm left with about half a gallon of 1.020 chocolate ale that just will not fit in my carboy. What can i do with it?
Also, how full is too full for a carboy? It's a 5.5 gal, with about 8 fl oz of space left in it.

I'm relaxed, not worrying, and enjoying a sweet flat glass of would-be-beer. I'm thinking i'll boil (to kill yeasties) what did not fit and add that at the end with priming sugar? I don't want to throw it away and it tastes soooo good already i may just drink it tonight. :cross:

Go buy a growler and fill with your left over wort...

portlandbeergeek said:

Also, how full is too full for a carboy? It's a 5.5 gal, with about 8 fl oz of space left in it.

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That's too full. You should probably either remove some to increase the headspace for the krausen, or attach a blowoff tube 'cause it's gonna get messy!

-Steve

or you could always freeze it and use it for starters in the future or do a .5gal test batch of something interesting

sweet, thanks for the quick replies. I'll go ahead and pour off some to leave room for krausen.
As for starters, it's a dark colored chocolate ale, and i'd be afraid to use it in anything too light. perhaps just for one starter next time i make a porter or something along those lines.
i threw away all of my f'ing growlers, before we moved to the beer capital of the US. Bummer, man....

You can NEVER make too much beer.. he he

Yea, I saw "too much beer" and jumped into this thread to do a quick intervention.
Store it in a clean container, use it as a starter but boil and cool it first.

Don't worry, I know how to handle this. I'll be over with a gallon jug in the morning to dispose of that for you.

portlandbeergeek said:

sweet, thanks for the quick replies. I'll go ahead and pour off some to leave room for krausen.
As for starters, it's a dark colored chocolate ale, and i'd be afraid to use it in anything too light. perhaps just for one starter next time i make a porter or something along those lines.
i threw away all of my f'ing growlers, before we moved to the beer capital of the US. Bummer, man....

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If this is the secondary then top it up with just enough room for the stopper. If you are talking the primary then you will need a gallon or more of head space at a minimum, a blow off tube will be a good idea.
Put the extra in a glass jug with an air lock and add it back together at bottling. I've found the plastic 1 gal Motts apple juice jugs use the same size stopper as a carboy. For a couple weeks this will be fine.

Craig

OR - you can save the extra 1/2 gal of wort in a sanitized container and use it instead of priming sugar, called Krausening. If you do a search, I think there's a calculator that assists in how much to add at bottling time. I've never done it myself, so I don't know offhand how much to use.

you guys rock.
it is a secondary, so i could've fit almost all of it, but i did pour some out. there's a good extra third to a half gallon of wort that has gone through primary. the leftovers are in the refrigerator, loosely covered. i have a week or so to think about what to do with it (family's in town, so maybe i'll wait even longer). Anyhow, i'll read up on Krausening and starters, as i've never done either. The extra wort is in clean jars that i washed but did not sanitize. I'll boil it before using, either way.
EvilTOJ, i'm afraid the wort's not up for grabs but if homebrew-swaps are cool with you I'm totally up for it

Unfortunately, since it's gone through primary, it's not game for either starters *or* krausening, since it's already fermented out.

BUT. I still have two ideas.

1) on my 7% sinful stout, I had about a quart of extra wort. I put it in a canning jar, kept it in the fridge for a couple days, covered with foil, and let the yeast drop out. Then, I drank as much as I could muster. (It was *really* dark and roasty. I didn't finish the jar.)

2) it works *great* as a marinade for meats. I routinely make blonde ale or english IPA chicken. stout works well for steak, IMO, as well as pork chop. since this is a chocolate ale, you could do about anything with it.