What did I brew??

2nd AG attempt(first went well) and went with a Victory Hop Devil clone from Beer Captured (the authors own my LHBS). Here is the recipe...

11.5 lbs 2 Row Pilsner
8oz Munich
8oz 65L Crystal
8oz Cara Munich

- Mashed at 153
- 90 min boil
... 2 oz Centennial @ 90 min
... 1/2 oz East Kent Goldings @ 15 min
... 1/2 oz Cascade @ 15 min
... 1 oz Cascade @ 3 min
(1/2 oz Cascade Dry Hop)

I was able to mash/sparge without any trouble in my 5g round cooler. However, my sticking point is still my small boil kettle (6.5g).

So, after a 90 min boil and chill I ended up with 4g in the fermenter chilled down to 65 degrees. I pitched 2 Wyeast 1056 smack packs and let it go (so I think my pitching rate was sufficient).

The OG was supposed to be 1.069 per the recipe. With my boil kettle issue, and decision not to top off the fermenter, I ended up with 1.080.

After 2.5 days it is down to 1.050 and is fermenting like crazy right now.

I'm definitely going to end up with a bigger beer than I intended to brew due to the volume. (I'm hoping the 1056 can get it below 1.020.) However, I'm not sure my hop additions are enough to support this. Just listened to the DIPA show from the BN and their recommended hop additions are so above and beyond what this recipe called for it's ridiculous.

So... Lessons learned for sure. But, what do you think my final beer might be?

Beer......

Haha, sorry had to do it.

Still sounds like an IPA to me. While its technically above style OG (only .05) styles are relative and the beer should come out fine. It may not bee exactly what you are looking for, but probably will still be pretty good.

Out of curiousity, how come you decided to not top up the fermenter? Also, you could scale your recipes down to 4 gallons to compensate for your small kettle

That's what I noticed too...sitting at 4 gallons with a higher-than-expected OG would probably indicate that you didn't top off to whatever was indicated. Most likely, it will be beer. Extremely potent, sweet hellspawn brew of doom beer, but beer nonetheless. Can't say I've ever come across that problem personally, but I don't see any problem in transferring to a secondary and topping off in that. Anyone care to prove me wrong?

I'm wondering what the best time might be to add another gallon of water, or if I should even bother. I suppose the final gravity might push me one way or the other.

I'd obviously have to boil the water to sanitize and drive off the oxygen, then cool it. I'm just not sure how risky this is in terms of introducing oxygen/bugs. Any other concerns?

Also, would you add the water before or after the dry hop? I wasn't planning on doing a secondary.

As for why I didn't top it off after the boil... It was a last minute decision to brew and planning wasn't as great as it should have been. It was late, I had one to many homebrews and decided to leave it instead of boiling/chilling more water.

I think waiting to see what your FG will be is a good idea. If it finishes out low enough, I wouldnt want to dilute those remaining sugars.

If you boil to drive off oxygen and to sanitize, then this shouldnt be too much of a concern. Just cover your pot as it cools. If it were my, I would use a secondary in this case. Cool your water, add it to the secondary, add your dry hops, and then rack the beer on top of it. That way the water will mix with teh beer as you fill and you shouldnt have to stir, and risk oxidation.

Right now it would be an DIPA. If you want to get it down into the IPA range, a gallon of water would do it. Topping it off can be done at any time, but before dry hopping might be a little better.

Update and question...

As mentioned, it stared out at 1.080.
After 3 days it was at 1.054
After 6 days(today) it is at 1.024.

I'm guessing it's not going to finish much lower than this. I'll check again in 2 days and see if it is still going. If so, I'll give it another few days and check again.

If not, I'm going to rack it on top of a gallon of water and the dry hop to get 5 gallons.

Can someone help me figure out what the FG will end up being if I add another gallon? I have 4 gallons now and let's assume it stays at 1.024.

david_42 said:

Right now it would be an DIPA. If you want to get it down into the IPA range, a gallon of water would do it. Topping it off can be done at any time, but before dry hopping might be a little better.

Click to expand...

I think it is in the DIPA range in terms of ABV as it is right now. However, I definitely didn't add enough hops for a DIPA (especially when taking into account underutilization from the smaller boil). The way this thing is shaping up it will probably be strong, cloyingly sweet, and underhoppped. I'm thinking that the extra gallon of water with the dry hop will help things.