Will this be ok? My wort looked like syrup

first I put these grains in the water and heated it to 170, then let it sit for 30 minutes...

6oz chocolate malt
4oz black patent malt
8oz honey malt
8oz 10L crystal malt
4oz victory malt

then i boiled it with:

8 pounds light malt extract syrup
8oz malto dextrin

hop pellets and times:

1.5oz galena 50 min
1oz cascade 20 min
1oz tettnanger 5min

then last two minutes:

1 pound clover honey

I used white labs european ale

I started with 2 gallons, by the time I poured it all into my carboy it was like syrup... is that ok? I added water to make it 5 gallons and shook the bananas out of it

also do you think it will taste good?

thanks!

If it contains high levels of fermentables the viscosity does noticeably thicken. Super-strength brews are really 2-in-1. I hope you added the 3 gallons of top-up water prior to fermentation. Other than that, there's no reason to worry.

yah, I made sure the total volume was 5 gallons after i put it in my primary, then I shook it like crazy to mix it up and aerate the wort

All that in two gallons of water will look & act like syrup. Just the extract would make the gravity 1.144 Most pancake syrups aren't that thick.

It will be fine.

OH FUDGE DAMNIT! I forgot to take the mother effing gravity!!!!!! AUGH!!!!!!!!

what should I do??? how can I get some wort out without contaminating it?

Beer is good said:

OH FUDGE DAMNIT! I forgot to take the mother effing gravity!!!!!! AUGH!!!!!!!!

what should I do??? how can I get some wort out without contaminating it?

Click to expand...

Bahhhh, just let it go. Just make sure you let it sit for a solid week or more before racking to the secondary. Gravity readings are overrated (in other words, I tend to forget as well)

Hmmm....looks familiar...somebody has been playing with the Black Butte Porter Clone recipe.....


6 oz. chocolate malt
6 oz. black patent malt
8 oz. honey malt
8 oz. 10L crystal malt
4 oz. toasted barley (buy it pre-toasted, or DIY @ 350 deg./10minutes)
8 oz. malto-dextrin
6 lbs. Light malt extract syrup
1 lb. Light dry malt extract
1 1/2 oz. Galena hops (60 min. bittering)
1 oz. Cascade hops (1/2 hour bittering/finishing)
1 oz. Tettnanger hops (5 min. aroma)
Wyeast #1338 European Ale yeast
2 tsp. each Gypsum and Burton Water Salts





This is my favorite beer on earth.......you left out the toasted Barley and added Victory and honey. You also dropped the Black Patent to 4 oz. Might be interesting to decrease the roastiness. Let us know how it turns out.

yah man, exactly what I used, I copied the recipe from your post https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=14205

but you used 4oz black patent... is that ok?

also the guy at the home brew shop said victory malt is toasted barley, did he lie? damnit... he is trying to make my beer taste bad...

for future reference, what is toasted barley? is that complately unmalted barley that I toast? at the brew shop, what do I need to buy so I can toast it myself?

Hope it turns out ok, it smelled excellent!

I can't wait!

You can't be off by much in an extract wort, it's impossible. Just plug the recipe into one of the calculators & write it down. Hydrometers are useful for checking the runnings in all grain and monitoring the finishing gravity. I do check all of my worts, but I wouldn't worry about an extract batch.

yeah.....typo It was supposed to be 6 oz but 4 should be just fine.

What made you add Honey?

As far a Victory Malt being the same thing a Toasted Barley.......I thought victory was a little lighter but it may be an OK substitute. Honestly...I use Roasted Barley which is way darker in mine and I think it tastes more like the real BBP than using the lighter Toasted Barley.

You will like it fine the way you did it.


Oh....to toast your own barley......use 2 or 6 row Barley Malt(Base Malt) and toast it 350 degrees for 10 mins.

thanks a lot for the help guys!

why the honey? well, my friend said "I want to try putting honey as an ingredient next time we brew", then I started looking for a recipe and found that porter and thought, I will pour honey into this.

is there a possibility that putting the steeping grains in the water at 170 and putting the lid on and letting it sit for 1/2 hour could have converted any of the starch into malt?

Also where can I find one of those calculators mentioned to figure my alcohol content?

Thanks again everyone! I can't wait to drink it... mmm..........

I would be truly appreciative if someone could plug my recipe into some calculator thing, I have never used one, I have seen those promash reports but I dont have that program... or if someone could direct me to a free, preferably open source calculator?

if there is not one, I will consider writing one. in fact, I am going to, if there is not an open source alternative I will start a project...

thanks everyone

Beer is good said:

is there a possibility that putting the steeping grains in the water at 170 and putting the lid on and letting it sit for 1/2 hour could have converted any of the starch into malt?......

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Yes, but only a small amount get converted if it is not done correctly. Actually 170 is the borderline for being hot enough to kill the enzymes that convert the starch. You should heat the water to 160 degrees and then steep the grains. Turn down the flame a tad and try to keep the temp @ 158 degrees for the steeping period. Then sparge or rinse the grains with 170 degree water. The sparge water is the last effort to remove the sugar....so it does not matter if it kills the enzymes. You just do not want 175 degree or hotter water to go on the grains.....it will extract bitter tastes that you do not want in your wort and it will kill off your conversion enzymes. killing the enzymes is not the end of the world for extract recipies since you get very little sugar from the specialty grains anyway.

Your recipe will yield about 6.5%-7% alcohol by volume

Your steeping yield was probably @ 25% which added .5 lbs of sugar....but a Bunch of color and flavor!

Normal steeping converts @ 40% of the sugars.

Thanks!!

You said my steeping yield was 25%, normal is 40%? How could I increase my yield? I "sparged" the grain bag with two pints of near boiling hot water...

Thanks for the information, it looks like very good beer and smells great so far...

I think you probably got it too hot to take full advantage of the enzyme conversion. If you limit temps to 158 while steeping then you should get a better conversion.

clayof2day said:

http://www.hbd.org/recipator/

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WARNING! The Recipator calculator is crap! I tried using it one time...plugged in 10 ounces, TEN FREAKIN OUNCES, of hops, including high AA hops, and the stupid thing claimed that my IBU would be 45.

Stay away from that site's calculator (though, the recipe database is cool). If you want, you can go to promash.com and download the free trial. Sure, you can only save/edit a couple times, but if all you're looking for is a calculator, the demo works great.