Screwed up with 35 minutes left to fix it

After I steeped my grains in an extract brew I put a little of the extract in at the start. I put it down on a patio table and turned back around to stir. When I turned back around I had extract dripping on the deck and all over the table. Lesson learned. Don't turn your back on the extract.

So now how to fix it? I saved most of it but not all of it. I probably have 5 or 6 points to make up in OG. I have on hand a 1 lb bag of amber extract and a 1 lb bag of light extract. This is a hoppy amber beer. How much would you say I should put into the wort? Which one amber or light?

Thanks.

If you want to stick as close as possible to the original recipe, add light or amber in accordance with the LME you lost. If it was light LME, add light extract. As for amount, you said you were able to save "most of it but not all of it." By weight, you need less DME than LME, so I would calculate as follows:

Amount to add = 0.80*("all of it" - "most of it")

This is a kit from the LHBS and they don't put the ingredients on the instructions. So I'm left guessing.

I started with 7.6lbs of extract and other mixed sugars. I figure I should go with the light to be safe.

So I started with 7.6 of lme. I have 4 lbs left. I probably saved about 90 percent of the remainder by using a paper towel dipped in hot water to dissolve the extract into the towel. I then rinsed in the hot water over and over as I used the towel to pick up the extract. I figured any dirt and grime from the deck will get killed in the boil so I'm not worried about that.

7.6 lbs - 4 lbs = 3.6 lbs. 10% loss gives about .36 lbs of lme to make up with dme. Given what was said above 80% of the .36 is .28 or so. (off the top of my head). So about a quarter of the bag aught to make up for it. Sound good?

Oh the heck with it. I'm going to put in 6 oz or .37 lbs or so of DME to make up for it. Worst case I get a bit stronger beer. DARN!

I'm confused how you lost the lme to begin with... if you put it down correctly, how did it get on it's side to spill? Otherwise, math sounds right about .25 lb or 1lb, or to be safe you should just put in the whole 3lb dme.

ACbrewer said:

I'm confused how you lost the lme to begin with... if you put it down correctly, how did it get on it's side to spill? Otherwise, math sounds right about .25 lb or 1lb, or to be safe you should just put in the whole 3lb dme.

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Yeah, I wound up putting in the whole 1lb bag of dme amber.

The extract was in a plastic bag with a tie on the top. I thought it was balanced well so it wouldn't spill but I was wrong. No I'm not enjoying a home brew too. :cross:

AR-Josh said:

No I'm not enjoying a home brew too. :cross:

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Well there's your problem!

Ok...1lb of amber DME was too much. OG at 5 gal came out to 1.060 instead of 1.052. So I diluted a little more with water to get to a little under 6 gal. OG came to 1.056 after I diluted with more water and I called it good enough. It'll be good hoppy stronger beer. WIN!!!


Lessons learned. It may be better to suck it up and move to all grain. I'm starting to hate dealing with extract after that cluster foxtrot. Especially liquid extract. I need to get the remaining components to do an all grain batch. I still have to get the plumbing for the mashtun and a wort chiller.

I don't know about you but I can probably knock out an all grain session in 4 or 5 hours (estimated from doing a partial mash with hacked together equipment). Extract for me takes 3 - 4 hours. 30 - 40 minutes to get the water steeping. Then add a little extract and bring to boil (another 20 minutes or so.) Now boil for 55 minutes. Then stop the heat and add the rest of the extract and bring back to a boil, 10-15 minutes. Remaining boil time of 5 minutes then cooling the wort in the sink is another 30-40 minutes. Add water, mix and pitch yeast. Clean up is then at least 20 minutes.

It's easier to dump the liquid extract from the bag into a bowl. Then when adding it to the boil just get some boiling wort in the bowl to get it all out. The remaining boil should take care of any nastys that could get in.

This was my 9th batch. I hate waiting for that first sample. I worry until I taste it that I have an infection. We'll see in 2 weeks. Thanks for listening to me ramble.

Sounds to me like you should chill - penicillin was an accident and that's one of the greatest medical discoveries ever. 1.060 is a nice OG, and if you have more malt than hop flavour you could always dry hop afterwards. AG is considerably more complicated, so take some heed before you make the switch!

For those that were worried, and I know you were...

FG came out to 1.009 or so. We're looking at around 6.3% abv and a great taste. No infections!

This post was mostly so others can see how a tragedy (seemingly at the time) turned into great beer.