what a let down

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JuiceyJay

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So, brewed an arrogant bastard clone tonight....lets just say it didn't go well....boiled too much off, topped off to just a little over 5 gallon, which was too much water.

Took a hydrometer reading and it was 1.035. The og was supposed to be 1.075

Guess I brewed the first arrogant bastard light? Or, ab 64 maybe?

IMAG0037.jpg


Pitched sf-5 at about 80 and I'm already seeing airlock activity in the S airlock, maybe one bubble a minute and that was put in the carboy 2 hours ago
 
If this is an extract batch I'm sure you're okay. A little extra water might drop the gravity a bit but not that much. More than likely what happened is you hydrometer sample has more water than wort.
 
Agreed, even if not extract that light water sitting on top of the heavy sugars. Probably got a bunk hydro sample
 
if this is an extract batch i'm sure you're okay. A little extra water might drop the gravity a bit but not that much. More than likely what happened is you hydrometer sample has more water than wort.

+1
 
It just me, or is that a *ridiculous* amount of trub?

Yeah...I probably would have siphoned off and left that in the kettle. That said, I've made clear, tasty beer after having crazy amounts of trub/hop gunk in my fermenter before. Enough patience in the primary and a good cold crash really work wonders.
 
It does look like it's half trub. Should've tried to strain it going in.

I did strain it going in! The recipe was kind of odd with regards to how much liquid was in the kettle during the boil vs the water amount in the carboybAFTER THE boil.


IMAG0036.jpg
checked in on it this morning and the airlock was happily bubbling away. A lot of the trub has settled on the bottom, and it didn't seem like there was as much in the carboy as the picture looked
 
I don't strain. I wouldn't worry about it. That stuff will settle out and be an inch thick by the end.
 
Relax. Your beer is fine. The OG will be what the kit says it is. You can visually see how separated it is, so your gravity measurement is undoubtedly wrong.

Your volumes are fine too. A little of 5 gallons is perfect since there is plenty of trub taking up space there. The boiloff is fine. That just what happens when you boil liquid. You don't have to worry about it at all for extract brewing since you can just top back off to 5 gallons.

Anyway, congrats on the first brew. Now, toss that carboy in a dark spot and leave it alone for a couple weeks.
 
I thought about a, mesh bag for the hops but it ended up with 3 ounces of hops in like 1.5 gallons of wort, figured it would have been too much of a hassle.

It was bad enough when the dme clumped up in the last addition and was hard to get the clumps out.
The 1 gal batch I did before was much easier :p
 
You might consider putting a blow off tube on that. From the pic it doesn't look like a lot of head space and the fermenting temp is a little warm. Probably going to get very active quickly.
 
I'm with everyone else. I think your hydrometer sample was off. It looks like it'll turn out great.

Personally, I use a blowoff tube in every batch with an OG over about 1.050. If I were you, I'd just assume you hit your target OG to be safe and install one. They are so easy to use and takes all the worry out of the first few days of vigorous fermentation.

Enjoy your beer - it's going to be tasty!
 
Well I got home just in the nick of time.....I walked into the airlock full of foam and heard a big release of gas And stuff was bubbling out of the top! Lol....

Here's how it looks now (much much better color, things are crazy active in the fermenter. :p

I feel much better with the blowoff tube on .

Only about half an inch of trub on the bottom, I feel I did a decent job .
IMAG0039.jpg
 
I've gotten to the point where I always put a blow-off tube on. Why worry or stress when it is just as easy as an airlock.

yeah, i'm going that direction from now on. My first brew was 1/25 gal in a 2 gal bucket and didn't worry about it (mainly because i couldn't see it) but man, i'm glad the community talked about the blow off or my wife would have probably put a stop to the brewing, lol
 
Looks like its going to be a great beer. The blowoff tube is a must with that little headspace in a beer that strong, so good catch! Happy sippin!
 
yeah, i'm going that direction from now on. My first brew was 1/25 gal in a 2 gal bucket and didn't worry about it (mainly because i couldn't see it) but man, i'm glad the community talked about the blow off or my wife would have probably put a stop to the brewing, lol

Me too for anything over 1.06 or so. It's not worth wondering whether you're going to come home to a beer detonation.
 
I've had ales around 1.046 blow off like moby dick before. It seems to depend on initial ferment temp & quality of yeast pitch.
 
I thought about a, mesh bag for the hops but it ended up with 3 ounces of hops in like 1.5 gallons of wort, figured it would have been too much of a hassle.

It was bad enough when the dme clumped up in the last addition and was hard to get the clumps out.
The 1 gal batch I did before was much easier :p

Did you take out DME clumps? that will affect OG and FG.

If you pre-mix your DME with cool or cold water first it mixes better, little to no clumping.

Cheers :mug:
 
With the arrogant bastard recipe, it doesn't call out for dry hopping, should I skip it and bottle how it is when the time comes, or should I dry hop? If I dry hop, which would complement chinook and cascade?
 
Did you take out DME clumps? that will affect OG and FG.

If you pre-mix your DME with cool or cold water first it mixes better, little to no clumping.

Cheers :mug:

I didn't take out the clumps, they dissolved before it was done boiling, but it was a pain in the ass.

With pre mixing dme, I only want to use enough to make like a paste right?
 
I didn't take out the clumps, they dissolved before it was done boiling, but it was a pain in the ass.

With pre mixing dme, I only want to use enough to make like a paste right?

DME can really be a pain when it clumps, I was having my wife pour it in real slow while I stirred, that worked ok, then she says to me why don't you pre mix it in cold water that way it wont clump up? It works great.

Not really a paste, more like thin pancake batter so you can just pour it in, just make sure your pot can handle it all.

Hope this helps make your brewing days easy'r, it sure did for me.

Cheers :mug:
 
I tried having the wife pour it in slow while I stirred and the steam basically made it clump up and stick to the bag, I took a potato masher (sterilized) and had a go at the clumps in the boil! I'm going to pre mix it next time.
 
Personally, I use a blowoff tube in every batch with an OG over about 1.050. If

These days I start with a blowoff for every beer. I just did a 1.048 hoppy wheat beer that fermented so aggressively it almost completely clogged the first blow off. Had that been an airlock I would have had a mess on my hands.
 
These days I start with a blowoff for every beer. [snip] Had that been an airlock I would have had a mess on my hands.

OK, I'm convinced. I just got a 6.5 gal carboy, thinking I could avoid a blowoff tube. First batch of Hefeweizen blew right to the top!

How long do you leave the BO in your fermentor? All through primary or just while it's shooting krausen?
 
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