Watered down. Can I add more malt after the primary?

I posted earlier in a hurry, so let me clarify my post.

Two weeks ago we brewed a Mr. Malt IPA kit beer(1.8 kg malt extract with 23 liters of water). This is the proportion of the kit. We transfered it to the secondary after 9 days and noticed it was a bit watered down when we moved it to the secondary. We dry hopped it, hoping to give it some more flavor but knowing that the yeast had chewed up the malt.

The same day we made a Mr. Malt Bitter with the same recipe: 1.8 kg of LME but we decreased the water to 19 liters. That one is currently in the primary.

1. Is there any way to save the IPA? Someone told me you can freeze off parts of the water to concentrate it.

2. Could we boil the fermented bitter after the primary phase, add another 1.8kg of bitter malt extract and pitch the yeast again for a "double fermentation?"

Any help on how to rescue what will surely be two watered down, low alcohol homebrews would be greatly appreciated!

Is the recipe in imperial units, or metric? 5 gallons is what most kits make, which is closer to 19L. 6 gallons is closer to the 23L. If the recipe called for 23L of water, I would consider adding back the water you left out of the second batch.

If you followed the recipe instructions, you made the beer correctly. Since you were using malt extract, there's no way the gravity was incorrect. Beer is going to taste worlds different green (new and unaged) and uncarbonated than the finished product will taste. Carbonation will massively change how you perceive this beer.

That is a very low amount of malt extract for an IPA, more like a low-gravity Pale. Your best bet at this time would be to take 3-4 liters out of the batch and use them to dissolve another 1.8kg of extract. Boil it a bit to sanitize, 10-15 minutes. Cool and add back to the fermenter.

Another kg would probably take care of the Bitter.

david_42 said:

That is a very low amount of malt extract for an IPA, more like a low-gravity Pale. Your best bet at this time would be to take 3-4 liters out of the batch and use them to dissolve another 1.8kg of extract. Boil it a bit to sanitize, 10-15 minutes. Cool and add back to the fermenter.

Another kg would probably take care of the Bitter.

Click to expand...

Good point, I didn't even bother to do that converion in my head. This sounds odd. Do you have a link to the recipe?

Links to the Mr. Malt Website for the kits.

http://www.mr-malt.it/product_info.php?cPath=87_21_24_31&products_id=41

There's the IPA

http://www.mr-malt.it/product_info.php?cPath=87_21_24_31&products_id=36

The Bitter

So the IPA is a done deal? But we could add another 1.8kg can to the primary if we sterilize, cool down, etc?

According to those links, you are supposed to add 1 Kg sugar to the boil. I'm guessing you didn't do that.

That's a lot of sugar - I'm not impressed with the kits. Why did you order an Italian beer kit when there are so many good sources here (Brewers Best, Midwest, Northern Brewer, Austin Homebrew, etc etc)?

frazier said:

According to those links, you are supposed to add 1 Kg sugar to the boil. I'm guessing you didn't do that.

That's a lot of sugar - I'm not impressed with the kits. Why did you order an Italian beer kit when there are so many good sources here (Brewers Best, Midwest, Northern Brewer, Austin Homebrew, etc etc)?

Click to expand...

Good observation, good question.

I have no idea what is up with those kits. They only seem to be sold at mr-malt.it.

While I initially thought those might beshipping weights, I really have no idea. The weight for the Belgian Strong Ale is 1.8kg, same as almost every other kit on there. Every single kit says it is either 1.5kg or 1.8 kg, so I'm not sure those are accurate.

A lot of the reviews mention something about adding 1-1.5 kg of malt extract, or maybe something about substituting malt extract for the sugar. I'm not sure because my Italian is pretty weak. Was there a lot of sugar included in the recipe, besides the malt extract?

Also, your name implies that you're spanish, and the site for Mr. Malt is Italian, but your location is Charlotte, NC? Any reason you didn't get a more local kit? Just wondering, not that it will help the beers you've already go going.

Could you give us a link to the instructions that came with the kit, or scan the instructions?

I'm actually living in Madrid, Spain. The website doesn't let me register as living anywhere but the US. Charlotte was the last place I lived in the states.

Homebrewing isn't very easy over here. My buddies and I just found a store that sells the stuff and we figured that we'd give it a go. We quickly realized Mr. Malt is a pretty bad company, so we're going to order our next ingredients from a different supplier.

I don't have the original instructions and my Italian isn't very good either. I don't remember seeing anything about adding sugar, but that sounds like a crucial step we missed.

Having said that, can I salvage the IPA or the Bitter? The IPA has been transfered, dry hopped and on Day 12 of fermentation. The Bitter was made Friday afternoon, so it's only been in the primary for a little over 3 days.

We can buy more Mr. Malts if necessary but don't have immediate access to anything else in terms of extract kits for saving these beers. Thanks guys!

If we can confirm you're supposed to add some sugar that you missed, yea, you could definitely get away with boiling 1-1.5 kg malt extract in as little water as you can manage for 10-15 minutes and adding it to your fermentor. I'd leave that in for another few weeks and then go directly to bottles.

The IPA is really the one that needs the most help, I think, all that bitterness and no malt backing it up. The bitter will probably be alright, but the same technique could be applied, I think. I wouldn't use sugar for either one.

I'd wait on confirmation of this all from a more seasoned brew-fixer.