Emergency! Forgot late malt addition! Can it be saved?

Hey all,

Crazy day. In the middle of brewing, the neighbors decided to come over with kids. I got distracted and forgot a late malt addition. I was supposed to add 9 lbs. of extract at 15 minutes.

I've already pitched the yeast and stoppered the carboy. Is there anything I can do?

FWIW, it is a Northern Brewer IPA extract kit. There are a lot of hops in there. There was an early addition of ~3lbs of extract, but right now I'm looking at a very light, very hoppy beer.

Anything I can do?

I guess I would heat it to a boil, take it off the heat, add the malt and boil for maybe 15 minutes. Three pounds is not nearly enough!

I'll have to re-pitch yeast, right?

LHBS is closed Sunday and Monday -- no yeast for me until Tuesday.

Oh yeah. If you alaready pitched the yeast, boiling will kill it.

I can't imagine what only three pounds of extract and lots of hops would make. Anybody else ?

Boil the extract in a small amount of water. As little water as you can get it to dissolve in. Boil just until dissolved, chill and add to the fermenter.

ChshreCat said:

Boil the extract in a small amount of water. As little water as you can get it to dissolve in. Boil just until dissolved, chill and add to the fermenter.

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I'm just a rookie but thats what I would do.

Thanks cat... that is better.

I didn't know he had already added the yeast...

At this point, I would just add the extract to the wort in the fermenter. then:
RDWHAHB

EDIT: Make sure the extract container is as clean as possible before you open it.

Since it was a late extract addition, you won't really have much of a difference in the end product, except for the little bit of water you used to dissolve the extract into.

Wow -- 8 replies in less than 10 minutes. I can't express how awesome y'all are.

Taking cat's advice, I used a wide-bottom 2.5 gal. pot (just a standard kitchen pot, calphalon). I put in maybe 3 cups of water -- enough to cover the bottom up to about 0.5 inch or maybe even less. I heated up the water and SLOWLY added extract, stirring constantly and making sure none got stuck to the bottom. It took ~15 minutes to add all of the extract. As soon as I stopped adding malt, it boiled quickly (I never turned off the heat). I got weird foamy boils -- it almost looked like moving pudding. After ~15 minutes of boiling, I put it in a sink full of cool water.

Here's where it got weird. We are out of ice. The only usable thing I could find in the freezer was 4 frozen ducks. That's right, frozen ducks. These have been sitting in my freezer for 3 years, and I'd been meaning to get rid of them (a hunter friend gave them to me, but after my first crunch into buckshot I decided not to eat the rest). So, I threw them into the sink to chill the water. It may even have made a difference.

I may be the first person in history to cool wort with frozen ducks. Just saying. At least it will be easy to name the beer -- clearly it must be "Frozen Duck Ale."

As it reached ~130 - 140*, however, the malt started to re-solidify. Just not enough water. I figured it was a very small amount going into 5 gallons, though, so I decided to go ahead and pour. I sanitized the funnel (which I just used earlier today to make EdWort's Apfelwein!), pulled the stopper off the carboy, and poured in the extract.

If the yeast hasn't started in 24-48 hours due to possible temperature shock, I'll re-pitch. I can get the Nottingham at my LHBS on Tuesday.

THANK YOU HBT folks for all of your help! I have learned so much here, it's just stupid.

Yeah, I'd have used a little more water and wouldn't have boiled it after I got the extract in. Just get the water up to boiling, take it off heat and start whisking in the extract. Once it was all in, I'd have brought it up to boiling and then immediately chilled.

I'm putting my money on it being fine. In 5 gallons, 3 cups of 130 degree water would probably only raise the total mass a few degrees. (There's a few physics majors would could probably tell you exactly). If the extract was in a slurry, it'll probably dissolve completely in the beer and the yeast will find it.

Wow -- 8 replies in less than 10 minutes. I can't express how awesome y'all are.


yeah, HomeBrewTalk is awesome

ChshreCat said:

Yeah, I'd have used a little more water and wouldn't have boiled it after I got the extract in. Just get the water up to boiling, take it off heat and start whisking in the extract. Once it was all in, I'd have brought it up to boiling and then immediately chilled.

I'm putting my money on it being fine. In 5 gallons, 3 cups of 130 degree water would probably only raise the total mass a few degrees. (There's a few physics majors would could probably tell you exactly). If the extract was in a slurry, it'll probably dissolve completely in the beer and the yeast will find it.

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It ended up being a bit more than 3 cups because of the 9 lbs of extract (half gallon container). But, hopefully it is saved. I probably should have boiled the water first, but, in the words of my people, meh. The directions had it going in with 15 min left in the boil, so I figured I'd boil it for that long. At this point (after several deep breaths and plenty of delicious malty liquid relaxer), I figure that as long as it ferments it will probably be OK. And if not, I'll just try again!

peripatetic said:

Here's where it got weird. We are out of ice. The only usable thing I could find in the freezer was 4 frozen ducks. That's right, frozen ducks. These have been sitting in my freezer for 3 years, and I'd been meaning to get rid of them (a hunter friend gave them to me, but after my first crunch into buckshot I decided not to eat the rest). So, I threw them into the sink to chill the water. It may even have made a difference.

I may be the first person in history to cool wort with frozen ducks. Just saying. At least it will be easy to name the beer -- clearly it must be "Frozen Duck Ale."

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PRICELESS!!!!

peripatetic said:

Wow -- 8 replies in less than 10 minutes. I can't express how awesome y'all are.

THANK YOU HBT folks for all of your help! I have learned so much here, it's just stupid.

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Yup. That's why I "heart" pretty much everyone here.

Don't forget to buy yourself a hydrometer. If you had taken a reading you would have known something was wrong.

Oh, I have a hydrometer, but the same set of distractions (ie., little girls) that caused me to forget the extract also caused me to forget the hydro reading. I've got a refractometer coming in the mail, though, and since that's easier and more gadget-y than a hydrometer, I'll be more likely to use it religiously. I never did get an OG reading on this one, but I'll be able to tell after drinking 3 or 4 of them once carbonated how much alcohol is in it!

UPDATE:

36 hours later, I've got a nice healthy fermentation going! I agitated it a bit (and I'll continue to do so) just in case some of the thick-ish extract I added sunk to the bottom and is getting covered by trub before it can be eaten by the yeast.

Thanks again for the emergency beer support!

peripatetic said:

UPDATE:

36 hours later, I've got a nice healthy fermentation going! I agitated it a bit (and I'll continue to do so) just in case some of the thick-ish extract I added sunk to the bottom and is getting covered by trub before it can be eaten by the yeast.

Thanks again for the emergency beer support!

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No, don't agitate it anymore! The yeast know where to find the sugar, and they'll mix it all up for you. You don't want to risk aerating the wort once fermentation has begun.

Hmm. I could have sworn that I saw a post about agitating to move the yeast around, but of course now I can't find it. It's funny which little things like that stick in your brain. OK -- no agitating from now on! (I tried to make sure it didn't splash when I agitated -- just rotated the carboy back and forth gently -- but now I won't touch it at all)

Thanks!

peripatetic said:

Hmm. I could have sworn that I saw a post about agitating to move the yeast around, but of course now I can't find it. It's funny which little things like that stick in your brain. OK -- no agitating from now on! (I tried to make sure it didn't splash when I agitated -- just rotated the carboy back and forth gently -- but now I won't touch it at all)

Thanks!

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People will sometimes agitate if they have a stuck fermentation at like 1.02 by just rocking the bucket/carboy to get the yeast in suspension again. But if you have ever watched a healthy fermentation in a carboy once they are going they will stir it up quite a bit anyway. No need to agitate/rock unless you get a little high of a SG at the end of fermentation.