Is this a crazy idea?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Agtronic

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 2, 2008
Messages
126
Reaction score
12
Location
Laval, Quebec
Hey guys, gals,

I started fermenting a batch of beer about two weeks ago, and nothing happened, no krausen or anything. It just looked like it sat there doing nothing. I thought maybe I had dead yeast, so I pitched a second packet, and still it did nothing.

You can read all about it here : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/very-novice-question-141227/

So finally, I think I know what I did wrong. I only used 1 lbs. of DME, when I should have used 2. I should have realized this when I got an OG reading of 1.030.

These are my options :

A) Dump the batch and start over.

B) Add another pound of DME to the batch, and see what happens. Only thing I'm worried about is I have been poking and smelling, and tasting this thing for the last 2 weeks. I'm scared I've ruined it.

The crazy idea : With option B, would it be crazy to pour the wort back into a boiling pot and boil it for a bit to make sure it's "clean" and then cool it and repitch the yeast? Or is it not even worth the effort?

Thanks!
 
Sure, if it doesn't smell rank or have stuff swimming in it, I'd bring it back to a boil, add some more DME, and cool it & repitch. Best case: it makes beer. Worst case: it doesn't make beer and you're out an extra pound of DME and a packet of yeast. It's not like you have to mortgage the farm to buy a pound of extract. It's not going to go radioactive on you; you could end up with some crappy tasting beer...or you could end up with some really good beer and hundreds of people will follow this thread and start using your ingenious double-boil-two-weeks-apart fantastic beer method :D
 
It actually smells great. It tastes good, but watered down. There is nothing floating, no film or anything, looks really clean. Great way to put things into perspective, who cares if it goes bad. I just didn't want to waste the DME, but seriously, it's like $4.00 for a lbs of it locally.

I will report back soon!

Thanks guys!
 
1. I would never dump a beer, unless you are 110% certain it is infected (contaminated). And only if it became infected. Even if the beer came out tasting funky there are other things you could do to fix it.

2. More details? What size is the batch? What other ingredients? I’m assuming you put in more than 1 lb DME in a 5 gal batch. If I were you I would boil 1 gallon of water and add 1.5 lbs of DME then once cooled I would add it to the fermenter. If you add the DME directly to the fermenter it might clump up and not mix well.
 
I posted the details my first thread. Basically, took a can of Cooper's draught, added one pound of DME, and threw in some yeast. I wanted test the difference between using refined sugar, and using DME instead. And since this mad mad world refuses to stick to one unit of measurement, I screwed up when converting gr. to oz. to lbs. to whatever else I converted it to.

I like your idea of adding just the DME, but the problem is it is now in a 5 gallon carboy, and there is like 1 inch of headroom to the bung.

Should I just save the slurry from the bottom of the carboy and repitch it after the boil, or pitch some new yeast?
 
As I was about to boil the beer for a second time, it occured to me, any sugar that has been fermented into alcohol would no longer be available, and would evaporate during the boil, essentially "resetting" the wort. I was then going to add 1 lbs of DME and it would have been the same result. After transfering the wort back to a primary, I took one last taste and it tasted weird. And after thinking about it, I decided to dump and start over. I felt really bad dumping it but with the amount of times it went back and forth to a primary / carboy, I felt it was too iffy.

Being careful this time, I started a new batch, and this time things are a lot different. I got a 24 litre aluminum pot for my birthday, along with a Cooper's Dark ale kit.

This is what I did :

- 1 can Cooper's Dark Ale hopped LME
- 2.2 lbs. Extra Pale DME
- 1.1 lbs. Amber DME
- 1.5 oz. of US Saaz Pellets
- 1 pack Cooper's Ale Yeast (dry)

I basically brought 20 litres of water to a boil, mixed in the LME and DME and once it was boiling again, I added the hops for 15 minutes. I then cooled the wort in the bath tub and poured it into a plastic fermenting bucket. I topped it off to 23L and put it under the counter in my kitchen. The temp in there is ~21-22°C (69-71°F). (I now have a seal in the lid, with an airlock fitted to the top).

After 12 hours the airlock was bubbling intensly. Bubbles every 2 seconds. It's been doing this for 48 hours now, and it smells amazing.

Again, I only remembered to take a SG reading after I pitched the yeast, and it was 1.040. I thought it would be higher considering how much DME I put in, but maybe the yeast (and its hydrating water) affected the reading?

Anyways, it's looking much more promising this time around. I'm so excited!!
 
Sounds like you made beer this time.

How long was your total boil? Normally 60 min is the norm but with extract you didn't really need it. From your post, it sounds like a 15 min boil.
If I had any concern, it would be about the hops. Did you dump the whole 1.5 oz for the 15 min.
Concern may be the wrong choice of words. If that was what you did you will probably have a fine beer.
When you move to partial mashes etc . and do 60 min boils, you will typically add some hops at the beginning of your boil for bittering, and some closer to the end for aroma or flavoring.
 
Well, the boil lasted about 20 minutes. I figured there was already a fair amount of bittering hops in the hopped LME, so I only wanted to add a little more hops aroma to balance out the 3.3 lbs of DME.

Do you think I used too much for a 15 minute flavoring hop?

What's the worst case scenario? Is an overly hoppy beer unpleasant?

I got the idea from this post : https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f37/coopers-kits-139199/#post1584332
 
I think a re-boil would have been dissapointing. Any of the sugars that were converted to alcohol during the intiall fermentation would most surely have been lost during the re-boil when the alcohol evaporated.
 
That was my exact thought process. And on top of that, I have been reading "how to brew", so just in the time it took me to ruin that first batch, I already knew a bunch of things I did wrong and was antsy to try a new batch, this time being very careful of temperature and sanitation.
 
Is this a great hobby, or what?

We all get to play around with an amazing process, meet some great people while doing it and most often end up with some amazing brew for our efforts.

I am a very new brewer and have been extremely satisfied with my results, and I am no rocket scientists. Its just amazing.
 
What's crazy is dumping a batch before you've let it finish.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/think-you-ruined-your-beer-set-your-fears-aside-74520/#post780124

You could have simply made a 2nd batch of higher gravity & then blended the beer come bottling time, but there is no reason to ever re-boil a batch that's already fermented.

I don't really think it's crazy to dump a $22 batch of beer, though I do feel it is a waste of a learning experience.

See, I'm trying to keep things simple, and take baby steps, to see what each change makes in the taste of a beer. I felt that mixing and matching, and calculating gravities etc. could have worked, but I wouldn't really know what I was doing, and I wouldn't know what I did to get to the beer I have. I want to understand every step.

And on top of that, I did not understand what happened with the batch. It never did anything, it just looked like brown water from the day I put it together, even after pitching two packets of yeast. My feeling is that the gravity was so low that it never went into "vigorous" mode. But even then, I never saw a single bubble, not even the tiny ones you normally see in the wort once it has calmed down. It just looked completely dead. I didn't want to start adding more DME and other ingredients to a wort I didn't know was any good.
 
Just read a few of those links in the "don't dump" thread. I feel kinda stupid now, but I guess there isn't really any way to learn this ... I feel really bad for that batch that is somewhere in the drainage, it could have been a perfectly good beer.

And I should know this too. I have been drinking beer I bottled over a year ago, which I felt tasted like garbage, total green apple / sour flavors. I figured I'll drink them now so I can have some empty bottles for when this current batch is done. And to my surprise, they are not as bad as I remember them being. The sour apple flavor is still there, but it's not as unpleasant as it once was, and I actually didn't have convulsions after the first sip. I also noticed that the head lasts more than 2 minutes now. It has become softer and more silky in mouthfeel. I'm actually almost liking these!

Lesson learned. I wish I could reverse time, 36 hours is all I need.

I will stay positive, and make sure this next one was worth it. It will pay respect to the beer before it, that unwillingly gave its life for the sake of better beer.
 
Back
Top