Punch me please!

I was not going to post the experience of my first All-grain attempt this past weekend but I feel I must be punished so here it is for your enjoyment. I was attempting an IPA with a total grain weight of 14 lbs. 13 lbs of grain and 1lb of brown sugar. I added all of the grains to my converted water cooler and I wanted to mash at 155 degrees so I added about 3 gal of water at 155 and mashed for 1 hour. Opps water should have beed 8 to 10 degrees hotter when it was added it. After the hour was up all I did was drain the liduid out and THAT WAS IT! Sparge nope! Yuck. I was such a fool! I should have read more so I knew what the proper things were to do. Anyway my IPA had an OG of 1.020 It is in primary. I don't even think it will be worth drinking. I am going to retry this same brew in a couple of weeks. So have fun with this little post.

That stinks! Well, there are a couple of things you can do- one is to boil up some DME and water to a s.g of 1.045 or so and throw it in there. If you hopped enough for 5 gallons, you could use the extra. Or did you add water to top off to 5 gallons? If you did that, you could still boil up some DME and add it and if you didn't add enough hops, you could even add some hops.

Could you post the recipe and what you did and we might have some suggestions for you? I'd hate to write it off just yet, unless that's what you want to do.

No I want to salvage this. It is a 5 gal batch. How much DME should I boil and add? IE water and DME? It has been fermenting since Sunday and the air lock stopped this afternoon.

Well, give us some specifics. You made only three gallons of wort, that you mashed, right? Then you added water and boiled? Or did you boil that down and then add water? How about hops and the hops schedule? How much did you boil I guess is what I'm asking and how much hops and when in the boil. That will help us come up with a plan.

Here is the recipie that I followed.

Brewing Method: All Grain
Yeast: White Labs Burton Ale
Yeast Starter: 1 Liter
Batch Size: 5 US Gallons
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.012
Alcohol Content: 6 ABV %
Total Grains: 14 lbs US
Color: 10.3
Extract Efficiency: 68 %
Hop IBU's: 58.2
Boiling Time: 60 minutes
Primary Fermentation: 1 week @ 65*
Secondary Fermentation: 10 days @ 60*
Additional Fermentation:

Grain Bill:

10 lbs Marris Otter Pale
1.5 lbs Cara-Pils Dextrine Malt
1.5 lbs Carastan Malt
1 lb Light Brown Sugar

Hop Bill:

1.5 ozs whole Wye Challenger (7.5 Alpha) 60 mins.
2 ozs whole Fuggles (5.0 Alpha) 20 mins.
2 ozs whole EK Goldings (4.75 Alpha) dry hopped in secondary

Mash Schedule:

Mashed at 155* for one hour with rather(naturally)hard water.
Mash out as you normally do.

In the mash I had a total of about 2 gallons. Then I added 1 gallon to that and boiled for 60 min. I added enough cold water to top off to 5 .25 gal.

It's gonna be tough honestly because you're already at full volume. You could spill out a gallon and then add a gallon of wort made from 3lbs of DME boiled for 15 minutes. That would get your total OG up to about 1.045. Don't worry, the yeast will find the added sugar. Given the reduced gravity with your hop bill, you're already plenty bitter, if not too bitter. No need to add more hops. In fact, if you leave it as is, it's going to taste bitter and thin.

That's the closest I can come to a punch avatar.

Don't feel so bad, I consider myself a fairly experienced brewer and I had a 10 gallon SNAFU not long ago. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=22684&page=5

Live and learn. Your next batch will go SOOOOO much better.

We've all been there, mate (near there, anyway)! Here's what I'd do If I were you and had the means... I'd go get a second fermenter, and split that first five gallon batch into two (If you siphon very carefully, you could minimize oxidation) Then I'd do a second, quick extract batch (going kind of light on the hops maybe), aerate it, and top off both fermenters. More beer, no waste! Good luck!

-p

I'd do Bobby's suggestion- adding 3 pounds DME into water, no hops. Then add it to the fermenter (after cooling). If your fermenter is overly full, I'd siphon some out, but otherwise just leave it. You'll have a better beer that you do know, that's for sure. You could do perry's suggestion- but them you'd have 10 gallons of possibly mediocre beer.

Your recipe looks good (I love MO malt) so I think it's salvageable.

Yeah, I first started suggesting splitting the batch also but it would require at least 5-6lbs of DME and yeah, all 10 gallons might suck.

Well I added the 3 lbs of DME yesterday and the yeast took off again. It looks like all is well for now. Thank you to everyone who helped!

eager_brewer said:

Well I added the 3 lbs of DME yesterday and the yeast took off again. It looks like all is well for now. Thank you to everyone who helped!

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I've done that before. Glad you got it going. Losing a batch is NEVER fun.