I added waaaay too much sugar, right?

Hi all, first post here. While waiting for my first ever batch (a kit) to bottle condition, I began my second batch. I didn't really realize how much sugar I was supposed to add. I think I added too much - I guess the task of upping the alcohol content was clouding my brain.

Could someone take a look at my recipe below and perhaps provide some comment or clue as to this batch's future? It's been fermenting furiously for two days now. 5 gal. THANKS!

3.3 lbs dark UME
2.4 lbs (2 cans Mr. Beer) Sticky Wicket UME
9-10 g dry ale yeast - Safale s-04
1 lb dry *lactose sugar
1 qt (32oz) grade A maple syrup
1 c molasses*
2 c dark corn syrup
5 c brown sugar

That does look like a ton of simple sugars, but it is tough to really know using volume (cups) instead of weight. Any idea how much each sugar addition weighs?

Wow, a cup of molasses is what sticks out to me. I mean the sugar is one thing, but with that much molasses that is basically all you are going to taste.

I am not sure what UME is...I assume it's liquid? Does the "U" mean "unhopped"?

If that is the case then you made this and didn't add any hops whatsoever?

weirdboy said:

Wow, a cup of molasses is what sticks out to me. I mean the sugar is one thing, but with that much molasses that is basically all you are going to taste.

I am not sure what UME is...I assume it's liquid? Does the "U" mean "unhopped"?

If that is the case then you made this and didn't add any hops whatsoever?

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If that's the case this is going to be the booziest sugar water the world has ever seen.

keesh said:

If that's the case this is going to be the booziest sugar water the world has ever seen.

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I seriously LoL'd at this. Almost made my beer come out my nose!

Well, 5 cups brown sugar is 1 1/4 lbs. 2 pounds maple syrup. About 1/2 pound corn syrup and a 1/2 pound molasses.

Also, UME means unhopped malt extract...no hops at all. I wanted a dark stout...didn't think there was hops in a stout.

I count like 11 pounds sugars. Should have saved the good yeast and pitched the ones that came in the kit. Can't wait till you post again after trying it.

Keep an eye on your gravity during fermentation. By the looks of it, your fermentation will likely stall due to the high alcohol content produced from all those simple sugars. You might want to think about re-pitching. It would have been nice if you pitched onto a fresh yeast cake and added more yeast once it began to stall. Oh well, that's how we all learn! Worst case, the beer will taste more like cider than beer. It will likely still be drinkable, but probably will be sweet and boozy tasting at first. Age it for a year and then taste it. Don't stress out too much, I'm sure it will be fine. Good luck and cheers!!:rockin:

i don't know what you made, but it ain't beer...

BookofNick said:

Well, 5 cups brown sugar is 1 1/4 lbs. 2 pounds maple syrup. About 1/2 pound corn syrup and a 1/2 pound molasses.

Also, UME means unhopped malt extract...no hops at all. I wanted a dark stout...didn't think there was hops in a stout.

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Typically, malt extract is referred to as dry or liquid, and by color - it's assumed to be unhopped. Also, stouts absolutely use hops.

Hops serve three purposes, two of which are considered to be optional.

#1 (required): hops added early in the boil give you bittering to balance out the sweetness from your sugars.

#2: hops added later in the boil add flavors... be these citrusy, earthy, whatever.

#3: hops added at the end of the boil add aromas to the beer.


If you don't have #1 (and you don't use some ancient traditional alternative like berries or whatever), you essentially end up with dark boozy sugar water, not beer.

Not trying to insult, only help you understand what hops are for. For your next try, you might want to check out recipes online for stouts.

Well, more like 4 1/4 pounds. Was I supposed to add hops?

Also, Mike are you serious about aging it for that long? Will that mellow out the sweetness?

BookofNick said:

Well, more like 4 1/4 pounds. Was I supposed to add hops?

Also, Mike are you serious about aging it for that long? Will that mellow out the sweetness?

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Yes, beer of anything but ancient traditional recipes should include at least some bittering hops. Grain+hops+water+yeast=beer. Remove one, and you have something else.

Aging it a very long time is probably the only shot you have.

BookofNick said:

. Was I supposed to add hops?

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Only if you were trying to make beer. There are four ingredients that are necessary (and even sufficient) for something to be beer: barley, hops, yeast, and water.

BookofNick said:

Well, more like 4 1/4 pounds. Was I supposed to add hops?

Also, Mike are you serious about aging it for that long? Will that mellow out the sweetness?

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Yes, you should have added hops. Without hops, it isn't beer. And with all that sugar in there, you're not going to get anything of any particular quality. In general, you want to use mostly, if not all, malt. In some beers you can add up to 10% sugar to help "thin" it out. Not sure if even long aging will help this one.

I suggest you start here - http://www.howtobrew.com

Yeah, sugar additions are a bit heavy handed, it takes along time for the brown sugar to mellow, early it throws some weird volatiles off (if you were thinking a rum porter think again), and the molasses plus maple will probably take a long time to mellow. You'll need some bitters to counterbalance this, otherwise it's going to taste alot like malt/malple/sugar wine...tho, who knows it might be tasty....let us know how it turns out...btw, what temp are you brewing this at?

Funny this is posted today, I just dumped a five gallon carboy of peach wine that I substituted about half the sugar with brown sugar....even a year plus it still was terrible....the peach was there but the brown sugar ruined it for some reason...

It sounds like I should dump this one. Thought I had something good going on.

BookofNick said:

It sounds like I should dump this one. Thought I had something good going on.

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Well, there's always tomorrow. Go find yourself a well-reviewed stout recipe and try again.

You might want to check the recpies tab at the top of this site - there are tons of really good ones to be found.

As you gain knowledge, you can experiment to make your brews your own; just edit small bits at a time without making wholesale changes until you really know what you are doing.

I wouldn't dump it. It might make a good marinade for pork.

It's only been fermenting for two days. What if I threw some hops into the fermenter? Bad idea?

BookofNick said:

It's only been fermenting for two days. What if I threw some hops into the fermenter? Bad idea?

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They'll add aroma, but not much else. This is what people refer to as "dry hopping" - adding hops directly to fermenting beer.

To get the bittering value, you have to boil hops for a long time (typically for 60 minutes of boil in your wort).

That would be dry hopping. You're not going to get any bitterness from that, you need to boil the hops.
Actually you probably won't preserve much aroma either dry hopping that early.

edit - beat me to it!

So how about making a hop tea? Boil some hops for an hour and add them to your secondary maybe. Ill let the experts weigh in.

BookofNick said:

It's only been fermenting for two days. What if I threw some hops into the fermenter? Bad idea?

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If you feel like experimenting, make some hop tea. Boil an ounce or two of bittering hops in a few quarts of water for an hour or so.

Woo! I'm a hop ninja!

homebrewdad said:

Typically, malt extract is referred to as dry or liquid, and by color - it's assumed to be unhopped. Also, stouts absolutely use hops.

Hops serve three purposes, two of which are considered to be optional.

<snip>

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Hops actually serve more purposes than that. They are naturally antimicrobial and act as a preservative, for example. They also provide compounds that help form a stable head in beer.

or inoculate it with some Acetobacter aceti and you might have a lifetime supply of kick arse vinegar....

Okay, thanks for the help everybody...sounds like its a lost cause, but I am going to wait two weeks and bottle it anyway, for kicks and giggles. I'll leave it in a dark corner of my basement and just forget about it for a while.

How about this?

http://morebeer.com/view_product/7835//IsoHop_Bitterness_Extract_1_oz

pretty pricey - ouch

weirdboy said:

Hops actually serve more purposes than that. They are naturally antimicrobial and act as a preservative, for example. They also provide compounds that help form a stable head in beer.

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You are of course correct. I limted my scope to what the different add times in the boil give you. Thanks for the correction.

Just an update - I bottled it!

...and tasted it, of course! I am known for my sweet tooth, so maybe I'm biased, but this actually tasted pretty good to me. It's got a lot of flavors I like, such as chocolate, coffee, etc. Maybe it's not technically beer, but I'm all in at this point. I'll post again when I drink my first bottle in a few weeks, even though you guys seem to agree that it should sit for a year.

homebrewdad said:

Typically, malt extract is referred to as dry or liquid, and by color - it's assumed to be unhopped. Also, stouts absolutely use hops.

Not trying to insult, only help you understand what hops are for. For your next try, you might want to check out recipes online for stouts.

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homebrewdad,

not trying to insult you, but OP is using Mr.Beer extracts which are labeled HME and UME, the latter meaning "unhopped malt extract". HME refers to "hopped malt extract". Mr.Beer wants to make it easy for beginners so they add the hops right into some extracts to possibly kill a step.

I want somebody to not add bittering hops and then make that "hop tea". I wanted to see how that would turn out lol

boil it and get some alcohol out of it when its done. Careful though, it might be flammable

breweRN said:

homebrewdad,

not trying to insult you, but OP is using Mr.Beer extracts which are labeled HME and UME, the latter meaning "unhopped malt extract". HME refers to "hopped malt extract". Mr.Beer wants to make it easy for beginners so they add the hops right into some extracts to possibly kill a step.

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Yes, this is true. My first batch was a Mr. Beer kit which came with a pre-hopped malt extract (HME). It's easy for a beginner like me to underestimate the necessity of hops after using this kit.

breweRN said:

homebrewdad,

not trying to insult you, but OP is using Mr.Beer extracts which are labeled HME and UME, the latter meaning "unhopped malt extract". HME refers to "hopped malt extract". Mr.Beer wants to make it easy for beginners so they add the hops right into some extracts to possibly kill a step.

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No insult taken. I was only trying to help the OP how to take his Mr. Beer knowledge and be able to apply it to what he might read on this board - and to understand that outside of Mr. Beer, malty extract is typically assumed to be unhopped.

No critisim intended at all by me.

BookofNick said:

Just an update - I bottled it!

...and tasted it, of course! I am known for my sweet tooth, so maybe I'm biased, but this actually tasted pretty good to me. It's got a lot of flavors I like, such as chocolate, coffee, etc. Maybe it's not technically beer, but I'm all in at this point. I'll post again when I drink my first bottle in a few weeks, even though you guys seem to agree that it should sit for a year.

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If you are enjoying it, does anything else REALLY matter?

Instructive thread. Is there already a regular column or blog called "Can This Beer Be Saved?" If not, there should be. Sorta like the column Good Housekeeping used to run called "Can This Marriage Be Saved," only with greater prospects of success.

Okay, guys, this tastes pretty damn good (18 days after bottling)

Malty and sweet, as expected. Chocolate really comes out. Very thin head (I expect this to increase over time), but it's there. Smell is dark and boozy - think Starbucks Frappachino with added maple sugar. Though more chocolate than coffee. Molasses is there but just barely. I can just taste the bourbon. It may be sweeter than a normal beer but it packs a punch like an imperial stout.

I call it "Maple Buzz Hopless Malt Stout." It may not technically be a beer without any hops, but I put it in the same general taste category as a high-alcohol, sweet imperial stout.

The only thing I regret is not re-pitching yeast to prolong fermentation and reduce the sugar/increase the alcohol a tad.

I'll prob make another future update as the flavor mellows over time. SO GLAD I did not dump it down the sink.

It's not beer, but that doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable. A lot of mixed drinks are really sweet and boozy and people love 'em. I wouldn't want to make this, but if you like it then nobody can say you're wrong.

Just try making some beer next time.