I made a horrible mistake...

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John2

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I have started to make my first batch of home made beer and in the excitement of it all I made one horrible mistake...I didn't add enough malt. I went to a local brewing supply store and all they sold were 1 pound bags and assumed (I know what happens when you assume...) that a 5 gallon batch, which seems to be the standard, only needed one bag. Now that I am done and my beer is fermenting I have since discovered that I should have used about a pound per gallon. Is there any hope at all or do I need to just accept defeat and start over?
 
ick. Try getting a gallon of water boiling, add the rest of the malt extract, boil for 10 minutes, cool and pour into your fermenter
or
accept defeat
or
prepare for an extremely weak beer (it may not even qualify as beer....)
 
Yes, Malt Extract. I used Munton's Plain Dark spraymalt extract. Have read good things about it, if this batch is a lost cause I'll probably still use it, just more of it.
 
I think perhaps you made Zima. :D

How much hops did you add to the beer? This part may be difficult to figure out because you need hops too.

What sized fermenter is it in? Is it an ale pail? Those actually are larger than the 5 gallons so conceivable you could get 5-6 pounds of dry extract and attempt to boil that up with a gallon of water and hops, then add that back to your fermenter.

The other possibility would be to get a couple cans of liquid malt extract, and do something similar. Bring it up to a boil with some water to steralize it, then add it to the fermenter.

Let me (and hopefully some other folks on here, play with some brewing software and see what we can do) but tell us about the hops and stuff.
 
I did add hops, 1 oz. of wilamette. Next time I will probably use a little more though.

After reading some of these replies I have decided to start from scratch. Thanks to everyone who replied. But now here is another question...is it 1 pound of malt extract per gallon of water total (so a 5 gallon batch requires 5 pounds or a little more) or a pound per gallon of water being boiled into wort (so about 3 pounds of malt extract)? And as far as hops go am I right to think that 1 oz. might have been too little?
 
Sounds like something I did! Its all part of the learning process, but I concur with Revvy and I suggest boiling the missing amount of extract with enough water to disolve it, cool it, and add it to your fermenter ASAP. I have done this before, and my beer was suprisingly awesome. Beer is so good, because it is pretty hard to screw up providing you realize your big errors (like waaaayy to little malt, in your case) and correct them best you can.

A more complicated option, but would net you way more beer, would be to make another batch of the same beer. In that batch, inlcude the additional malt you need. Once the wort is cooled, combine the two and continue fermenting. 2 batches :) Probably not a great option. Either way, you will have beer.

Brush up on your reading as directed above, for next time.
 
howtobrew.com is a great resource and will help you learn a lot very quickly.

My other suggestion for next time is to use a proven recipe. There's a great listing right here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f82/ just pick the beer style you'd like to make. I'd suggest picking one with a lot of replies because some people do post unproven recipes (and read the replies to make sure they don't all say "this recipe's terrible" or something like that).
 
You are showing your age with that one old man. :p

Maybe people like me just over think things though. Telescope making, beer making, etc.... I read my ass off first to the point that it seemed like I'd never start because I couldn't do it perfectly. :D

Well, you must have missed the part about using more than one pound of extract in a 5 gallon batch then. ;)
 
RDWHABMC & learn from the mistake. Next time it will be better, and the time after that it will be better still, ad infinitum.
 
may i suggest you start with a little reading. http://www.howtobrew.com/intro.html

+2

Also, you must have read the part that said these are the ingredients for an extract, partial mash, or all grain option. Not bashing you, but perhaps just go back to the drawing boards and make another recipe. Maybe buy a kit from here http://www.austinhomebrew.com/index.php?cPath=178_452 or use one of the recipes found on homebrewtalk's database like already stated.

Good luck and happy brewing,
Jacob
 
I'd let it ferment out and see how it tastes.

1# of DME = 1.046 in 1 gallon. So it is 46 points for one pound of DME.

46 points in 5 gallons is a 1.009 SG. Ouch.
 
I would say cut your losses and start over. You're out, what, like 10 bucks and an hour? It's not going to make anything you want to drink and you can chalk it up to experience.
 
By the way, John2 - Welcome to HBT!

all kinds of opinions to sort through, and it's ultimately up to you -- add more or cut your losses.

Many of my extract recipes used closer to 7 pounds for a 5 gallon batch - it's really recipe dependent.

Welcome to the hobby - keep reading, keep asking, you'll be making your own good beer soon!
 
it's gonna be basically non alcoholic. the alcohol content of beer is, as you may or not know, largely though not solely dependent upon the amount of sugar available for the yeast to consume. you will create "beer" with 1 lb of extract in a 5 gallon batch, which is a great start for your first beer, right?

do yourself a favor and go to your local library and rent any homebrewing book by charlie papazian. it's free and, as a fellow relatively new brewer, the best advice i can provide.
 
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