Missed one gallon, what now?

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SmashmouthBeerBrewing

SmashmouthBeerBrewing

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This isn't a "did I blow it" question, simply a "what happens next" question.

I made a golden ale saturday, and moved it to my secondary for dry hopping yesterday, only 4 days into the process. I noticed I may have taken "relax, have a homebrew" too literally saturday and evidently I completely missed the last gallon of post-boil water (distilled). I noticed the OG was really high, yes, but I couldn't think of how it happened so I figured it was a one-off.

I threw the extra gallon in yesterday and now I'm just waiting for it to be ready to bottle. All I'm wondering about is how late water addition affects the end product.
 
Shouldn't matter at all, as the most likely problem would have been a slow start due to the OG. For a golden that's not going to be a problem.
 
I got a reply somewhere else that says this is what some brewers do intentionally to make a lower alcohol beer without cutting back flavor. They make a high gravity wort but don't cut it all the way until later on.

Which, oddly enough, is the point of this golden ale. Making an all day drinker for summer parties has been one of our missions since we started.

:tank:
 
SmashmouthBeerBrewing said:
I got a reply somewhere else that says this is what some brewers do intentionally to make a lower alcohol beer without cutting back flavor. They make a high gravity wort but don't cut it all the way until later on.

Which, oddly enough, is the point of this golden ale. Making an all day drinker for summer parties has been one of our missions since we started.

:tank:
Click to expand...

I would love to see the calculations for this. Without seeing those, I can't really get a good grasp on how this would work.

To me it doesn't seem like this would happen. You start off with a higher OG since you only put in 4 gallons so after fermentation is 50% complete, you would have a higher SG than you would with 5 gallons after 50% completed. Now you add a gallon which will lower your SG at that 50% completed stage. To me adding that water would bring your SG to right around where it would be if you started with 5 gallons so your ABV would be right around the same.

Would anyone have SG readings and ABV calculations to show us? I am interested in knowing what happens
 
h22lude said:
I would love to see the calculations for this. Without seeing those, I can't really get a good grasp on how this would work.

To me it doesn't seem like this would happen. You start off with a higher OG since you only put in 4 gallons so after fermentation is 50% complete, you would have a higher SG than you would with 5 gallons after 50% completed. Now you add a gallon which will lower your SG at that 50% completed stage. To me adding that water would bring your SG to right around where it would be if you started with 5 gallons so your ABV would be right around the same.

Would anyone have SG readings and ABV calculations to show us? I am interested in knowing what happens
Click to expand...

Could it be that with less water you could potentially hit whatever alcohol level that starts killing off yeast sooner than if it was more diluted? I think I read at 12% the alcohol kills off yeast, that's why sam adams had to come up with their own strain of yeast to make that Utopias that comes out at 25% or whatever.

I dunno, in my head I can conceive of this even if I can't word it out.
 
With leaving out just one gallon I think it should be fine especially if you were to make a starter or pitch two packets.

What was your OG with the 4 gallons?
 
h22lude said:
With leaving out just one gallon I think it should be fine especially if you were to make a starter or pitch two packets.

What was your OG with the 4 gallons?
Click to expand...

~1.065, it was supposed to be in the low 40s

I'm sure it'll be fine, my question is really more of a finer point. Like do any flavors change with this, does it change fermentation speed.

This is my first attempt at altering a recipe kit so between dropping some of my mid-boil hops and changing out kent goldings plugs with fresh cascade, I'm gonna ride this out and compare it to the first batch, see how it goes.


edit: I see you've got a Dead Guy clone in your signature. You get that from Beer&Wine hobby in Woburn?
 
I messed up a few weeks ago and miscaled my boil off and I just rode it out. I had about 9 gals of wort instead of 10gal that was at 1.064 that was supposed to be a 1.054 finish at 1.020 instead of 1.010 and it was awesome none the less.
It all worked out the same.

Its really hard to mess beer up.
 

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