overgrained

IPA almost out of secondary, but there was too much grain in the wort and I'm wondering if re-yeasting will help. It would then go back into another secondary.

Confused about what exactly you are asking, do you think your fermentation is stuck? We need some more info like OG/FG, recipe, fermentation schedule/temp.

If your beer wasn't done fermenting, moving it into a secondary was probably a mistake.

Explain how you determined that your beer might have been "overgrained" -along with your Original Gravity reading, Target Final Gravity when finished (according to the recipe or instructions you used) and also your beer's current Gravity reading.

It might help to also hear you process and ingredients.

I thought I'd add more body and color to my extract IPA.

Ilb Briess Caramel 40
¾ Lb Torrified Wheat, Victory, Special Roast
¼ oz Amarillo hops at 60 min
Flameout for 10 minutes. Return to flame but much much lower than usual. Boil temperature 200 degrees.
4.6 oz Gold malt syrup at 45 minutes
2/4 oz Amarillo hops 45 minutes
4.6 oz Gold malt syrup at 30 minutes
1oz Zythos 30 minutes
Hop shot 25 minutes
Flameout early at 8 min.
2 oz Zythos at 0 minutes

OG: 1061
Temp: 78.4

Fermentation temperature: 64 degrees

Transferred to secondary at 2 weeks. FG 1019. It's been in secondary for 8 days and smells like pure grain. I was thinking pitching and fermenting might help to clear up some of the heavy grain note.

Yeast eat sugars, not "grains". Grains are mashed to allow enzymes to convert starches into sugars.

What was your process? Did you just steep these addtional grains ? At what temperature & for how long?

Have you checked your current gravity? How long ago did you brew this beer?

Soaked grains 20 minutes at 155. Checked gravity 3 days ago, which is the FG I quoted. Was wrong about my secondary. It's been in for 11 days. Brewed July 5.

OK- here's my shot at a guess.

I'm assuming that you just kind of "winged it" with coming up with a recipe for your IPA.

I Haven't heard of any IPA's using torrified wheat or Special Roast as added specialty grains. Even the 1 lb of added Crystal malt like Caramel 40 is probably a bit too much for a 5 gallon IPA extract batch by itself. Special Roast can normally be found in beers like Porters, Stouts, Brown ales, etc. - not IPA's. I like the idea of a touch of Victory, but I'm not sure about the whole mix of grains you used.

I also don't see enough extract listed, but I'll assumed you had to use some to get up to a 1.061 starting gravity. Was the extract part of a kit? Did you add any sugar other than the 4.6 oz of Gold malt syrup? Perhaps if that was supposed to be 4.6 LBS it might add up.

Your hop schedule also looks interesting to say the least. If you used the Hop Shot extract - how much did you use? a whole 5 millileter syringe? That's a bunch of bittering, before any of your other hop additions.

Not saying that "winging it" isn't a worthwhile experiment now & then, but I have a hard time seeing the intent of this beer. I suggest you get a more experienced brewer to taste it and see what they might say. You might stand a chance of using this to blend with a less aggressive beer that needs more bitterness.

Time will usually mellow more agressive flavors in a beer and reduce hop bitterness.

I overhopped an IPA I made once using some leaf hops someone gave me a pound of. After almost 8 months in the bottle it was decent, after a year I wished I had kept another six-pack set aside.

Good luck with it.

jambafish said:

Soaked grains 20 minutes at 155. Checked gravity 3 days ago, which is the FG I quoted. Was wrong about my secondary. It's been in for 11 days. Brewed July 5.

Click to expand...

Yeast won't reduce "grain" flavor. There are hundreds of billions of yeast in your beer currently- you don't need more and you definitely don't need to rack to another vessel.

Your recipe is flawed (too much specialty grain) but you know that. It should fade with some time, but some of those specialty grains are pretty strong flavored. I use .25 pound of victory in some hoppy beers, but wouldn't use the others along with it and certainly not in a large quantity. But it should mellow a bit. Some dryhopping might help cover up the strong flavor of those specialty grains.

I was most certainly winging it, but the hop schedule came after speaking with more experienced brewers. The added grain was a mistake, I see that now. About every other brew I try to experiment a little. Most succeed. I'm not concerned about the bitterness, just the grain. Lesson learned. I'll probably keep it in secondary, cold crash, keg and store. I'm making a pale today so that will probably mix well. Thanks.