First batch made yesterday, very thick wort?!

So I am brand new to homebrewing and have been fascinated with it recently. I got all the equipment and picked out an IPA recipe that they had at the store.

The recipe called to bring 1 1/2 gallons to boil. It also called to add the dry and liquid malt extract into the boil after 40 mins. At 40 mins much of the water was evaperated and adding the malt extract made it very thick. Boil for another 20 mins and the wort turned out to be almost like molases. Recipe called for the wort to be cooled then poured into fermentor. I couldnt exactly pour the wort since its so thick but I managed it into the carboy. Then it said to top of wort with water to 5 gal. Well there was roughly a gallon of wort so I added 4 gal of water. Water mixed somewhat with wort but there is a very thick layer of it on bottom. I pitched with dry yeast.

I am at 15 hours after pitching yeast I am yet to see activity of fermention. So I am all not sure if this is working or if it has been a fail. I did not take hydrometer reading of the wort because it was so thick, hydromotor probably wouldnt even sink into it. If it took the reading of the water I added, I dont know how accuarate that would be since all the wort is really sitting on the bottom.

So looking back now I shouldnt have followed their recipe exactly how it was written. Adding more water to the boil would have helped. I also could have probably stired the extract better as it was added.

Anyone have any insights or suggestions?

LifeTree said:

So looking back now I shouldnt have followed their recipe exactly how it was written. Adding more water to the boil would have helped. I also could have probably stired the extract better as it was added.

Anyone have any insights or suggestions?

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It looks like you have a pretty good handle on the situation. 1.5 gallons is a tiny amount of water to start with...I am guessing they are assuming you only have a small kettle. How many pounds of extract where you adding? Did you add your hops at the beginning of the boil to the 1.5g volume? If the "wort" really was that thick, I can see how it would have a hard time dissolving with the dilution.

I did forget to add...it has only been 15 hours. It can take up to 72 hours to show signs of fermentation. Give it another 24 hours...then start to worry.

The recipe was for a regular 5 gallon batch, got this from the store I bought the stuff from. The recipe I had prepare when I went there was for all grain and they pointed it out and said I wasnt set up for it. So I just went with an extract recipe they had there. I did have a pretty small kettle but I still could have held more in it for the boil.

I had read that it can take time to ferment and also it can be fermenting when it is not visible. So Im not panicing.

After all its my first brew and this is a learning process

Are you sure you weren't supposed to add more water? That doesn't sound right to me. Can you post the recipe? You're probably ok but we can look to be certain. Also, your boil shouldn't be near as thick as you described. At the very least we can make sure to learn something for the next batch.

Man, those are pretty poor instructions. I like to boil as much volume as the pot can handle, and then top off to 5 gallons when you are done. This will lead to better hop utilization, and in general a better tasting wort. With that little water and that much extract it seems like scorching the wort would be pretty easy to do. The way you describe the wort as molasses, makes me think that you likely you had some heavy duty caramelization / maillard reactions happening....kinda like you turned the wort into a candy syrup. Also, I imagine that getting the water added to mix with the thick wort within the carboy was pretty damn impossible. Without getting the sugars to mix well, most of your fermentables will likely sit on the bottom of the carboy doing nothing. You'll end up with a lighter, thinner beer.

Personally, I'd shake the hell out of the carboy and try to get all of the syrup on the bottom to mix with the water. Good luck!

Indian Pale Ale
Tampa Bay Brewing Company Original
Recipe Designed by John Doble - Brewmaster

6.5 lbs Pale Malt Extract
1 lb Dry Light Mal
16 oz Vienna
8 oz Carapilis
4 oz Victory
8 oz Munich

2 oz Nothern Brewer (bittering)
2 oz Columbus (flavoring)
2 oz Cascade (finishing)

1 tbs Gypsum

Nottingham Ale Yeast

Procedure:
Place all grains (cracked) into a hop bag and put into 1 1/2 gallons of water. Slowly bring the water to a boil, but just prior to reaching a boil discard grains. Bring to a full boil, add in the bittering hops and gypsum and boil for 40 minutes. Stir in the malt extracts and 1 oz of flavoring hops and boil for 10 more minutes. Turn off the stove, add in the finishing hops. Cool the pot of wort in a sink of water and ice for 20 minutes, pour into fermenting bucket and topp of to 5 gallons. When the temperature of the wort is below 80 degrees F, pitch the yeast.

O.G 1.050 - 1.052
F.G 1.015 - 1.017
ABV Aprox 4%

I just followed the recipe for the most part. I mixed all the hops together and did a continuos hop like hogfish head. I now know to use as much water as possible during the boil. The instruction on this recipe is what killed me as a first timer. The color of the water on top looks suprising good for how much of the sugary black stuff is sitting on the bottom of the carboy. Ill get a picture of it on here sometime.

Would shaking the carboy to get the sugar up disturb the yeast fermenting?

Swirl that bad boy up a bit, it's not going to hurt at this point. It'll stir up the yeast a bit and help to mix that wort at the bottom up.

Okay I mixed it up a quite a bit. I think im going to take a hydrometer reading today or tomorrow. Then another reading in a week or so to see where its at. I guess just wait and see...

Had the exact same thing happen to me last night: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/recommend-me-recipe-158686/.

I ended up with molasses-type wort. In my case I had figured I'd lose a liter or two during the boil, but I had a much more aggressive boil-off. I was expecting 4L, but ended up with less than 2L! As you noted, it was impossible to take a hydrometer reading. I did what you did - added the yeast, moved to carboys, and shook the heck out of 'em, airlocked and stored. It's been about 20 hours; no airlock activity but I'm getting some film at the top of the wort so I think things are going fine:



I also have a pretty good pile of sludge at the bottom of each carboy tho - wondering if shaking 'em up at this point would be a no-no? Probably isn't needed, I guess; it's only been about 20 hours.



PS: With these small batches a refractometer is a must - otherwise you end up losing too much wort to hydrometer readings!

right after the extract grains get pulled out, you should add some more water. that's a lot of malt for that small of a volume. you're not going to get the hopiness out of it you would expect for an IPA because the utilization will be low. it's not your fault, those are bad instructions. you still made beer though and it will probably still be pretty good. you'll only get better. congrats and welcome to the obsession.

Okay so I just pour some beer into my hydrometer tube, I figured it would help mix it up anyways. I got a reading of 1.020. I hope I can see the yeast reaction from yeast soon. From the looks of it now it the tube it will probably be a very pale ale.

So eventually after seeing all the sugar still sitting on the bottom of the carboy i decided to put the handle of my stir paddle in there and mix it all up. That really made the air lock take off for a day. After it slowed down I added 1 lb of dextrose since the recipe was such a low abv. That kick started it all again. After a week from the brew date it slowed down again. So then I racked it to the secondary and dry hopped it with an ounce of cascade.

Then tonight I took a hydrometer reading and its at 1.019. Not far from my last reading but then again I dont think it was very accurate to compare to this reading. So I will let it sit for a week and half then bottle. I hope it turns out okay. I had to take a sip of it at this point.. and it was very bitter tasting. The color was pretty good. I hope the final furmention and bottle conditioning makes it better.

Any thoughts?