Ok, I did screw up, I'm an idiot! Can I be saved?

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miner33

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It turns out I did indeed screw up my first brew. I brewed it on Saturday. It turns out I did not put enough malt extract in the boil. I was supposed to put dry extract and liquid extract in but I only put in the liquid (in Napoleon Dynamite voice: "Idiot!"). It was bubbling in the fermentor since Saturday. I called the homebrew shop and the guy said to come in and buy another can on liquid extract and stir it into my fermenting batch. Do you guys think this will work or should I punt and start over?
 
do you not have the dry extract? I wouldn't stir it up, but if you still have the missing dry extract, you could boil it in a little water and gently add it.

What was the recipe?
 
It depends how low your OG was, but this could work. It might be worth boiling the LME in with a bit of water to:

1. remove oxygen
2. Sanitize the new wort.
 
I asked the brew shop guy if I could boil the dry but he said if I already have 5 gallons it would water it down? or soemthign like that.

The recipe called for the can of liquid extract (3 lbs maybe?) and 2 lbs of dry I think?
 
If you still have the dry extract I'd say just boil it in a few cups of water (enough to make it liquid) for a few minutes to sanitize then add that to the fermenter.


Edit: slow...

You won't water it down by adding a couple cups of water to the final volume
 
Kungpaodog said:
One of these days I'm gonna post before Yooper or Revvy. I just know it.:D
Click to expand...

Good luck with that! :D

conpewter said:
If you still have the dry extract I'd say just boil it in a few cups of water (enough to make it liquid) for a few minutes to sanitize then add that to the fermenter.


Edit: slow...

You won't water it down by adding a couple cups of water to the final volume
Click to expand...

Yes, use a little water (as little as possible to dissolve the DME) and boil it up. Cool it, and add it to the fermenter.

Did you take an OG reading? That would have been an instant alert that there wasn't enough extract in the brew.
 
conpewter said:
If you still have the dry extract I'd say just boil it in a few cups of water (enough to make it liquid) for a few minutes to sanitize then add that to the fermenter.


Edit: slow...

You won't water it down by adding a couple cups of water to the final volume
Click to expand...

Just for the sake of argument, I don't think a few cups of extra water will dilute the batch any significant amount. And if it's a big worry, add a bit of extra DME to balance it out.

And be sure to cool it before adding it in as to not shock the yeast.
 
YooperBrew said:
Did you take an OG reading? That would have been an instant alert that there wasn't enough extract in the brew.
Click to expand...

I did take a reading and it was super low (1.02). I posted a thread about this, but I convinced myself that it was because of poor mixing.

God! I feel stupid about this!
 
miner33 said:
I did take a reading and it was super low (1.02). I posted a thread about this, but I convinced myself that it was because of poor mixing.

God! I feel stupid about this!
Click to expand...

No reason to feel stupid- it's easy to forget items. I've heard from a few who forgot to add hops, since they didn't have them laying on the table right in front of them.

Not mixing thoroughly is almost always the cause of a "bad" hydrometer reading, but it might have also been a bit of a reminder that something was missing. I guess that's one of the things that never occurred to us with our advice, but it makes sense now why the OG was so low.
 
So I boiled the DME in about 3 cups of water, 2 did not seem like enough. I added it to the batch once it was below 80 degrees. Everything seemed fine but my gravity was low again. Oh well. I still barely have more than 5 gallons of beer. The beer smelled good when I opened the fermentor, I guess that is a good thing.

I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks!

Thanks for the help!
 
miner33 said:
So I boiled the DME in about 3 cups of water, 2 did not seem like enough. I added it to the batch once it was below 80 degrees. Everything seemed fine but my gravity was low again. Oh well. I still barely have more than 5 gallons of beer. The beer smelled good when I opened the fermentor, I guess that is a good thing.

I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks!

Thanks for the help!
Click to expand...

Well the gravity would have been low, after all the beer has been fermenting and there wouldn't be any way to mix it up without aerating it. An SG reading would not be necessary (or helpful) at this stage anyway. So, just gently pour the DME mixture in, seal it up, and wait!
 
Did you take a gravity reading before you added the extra DME? You have to remember that your yeast has been working really hard at eating away at the sugars in the beer and your gravity will lower with that. If you measured before you added and then after, you would have seen a jump with adding the extra sugar. Just remember, you never really make bad beer, just interesting beer.
 
in my beginner's haste to get my beer brewing, I read my instructions of "rehydrate 2 packets of yeast", but did not research further on just how much yeast is in this so called "packet". upon further research, the packet size in my directions was assumed to be 7grams. The packets i used were 15 grams each! so basically i rehydrated 30 grams of yeast and then i pitched another 15g packet on top before sending it off on its fermentation journey... soooo, how much yeast exactly is TOO MUCH? and have i far surpassed that point? am i going to be drinking liquified yeast in a month?
 
JUSTBEERPLEASE said:
in my beginner's haste to get my beer brewing, I read my instructions of "rehydrate 2 packets of yeast", but did not research further on just how much yeast is in this so called "packet". upon further research, the packet size in my directions was assumed to be 7grams. The packets i used were 15 grams each! so basically i rehydrated 30 grams of yeast and then i pitched another 15g packet on top before sending it off on its fermentation journey... soooo, how much yeast exactly is TOO MUCH? and have i far surpassed that point? am i going to be drinking liquified yeast in a month?
Click to expand...

It's fine. It won't taste yeasty- any "extra" yeast will just fall to the bottom after fermentation is finished. Just give it a bit longer in the fermenter to clear up a bit before transferring.

You may have "overpitched" a bit, but not really anything to worry about at all.
 

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