Dumb Luck = dumb experiment

Well I hit my all time high efficiency today (84.9) and my dumb A$$ for got to check the humidity . Which was very low today, so I didn't boil off as much as I normally do. I was shooting for 6 gallon batch ended up with almost 7.5. I have no way to store it. I put about 3/4 gallon into a water jug. I'm going to decant my starter into it and put an air lock on it. I'm not going to dry hop this jug just to see if dry hopping makes much difference it the flavor profile. Not sure how O2 tight a water jug is but heck what else can I do with it?

drink it

It's a bit late for this but the obvious solution would be to continue the boil to get to the anticipated volume.

RM-MN, I thought the same thing as I was filling the Carboy. To late at that time, plus with the hop schedule i was using it would have been a super bitter American Pale Ale. Not sure how that would have tasted. So, I had 1.5 gallons extra put an extra 3/4 gallon in the primary and 3/4 gallon in a jug. I'm sure it's going to blow the airlock off I can't find my blow off tube.

I use 1/2 gallon liquor bottles as mini fermentors for my extra wort. I usually start these with trub from a previous batch. When the bucket stops bubbling in 4 to 7 days I pour the liqour bottles in the bucket. By doing this I can fill a keg, plus get a few bottles as a bonus.

If you can't find a blowoff tube, just cover the opening with foil or saran wrap to keep things from falling into the wort and the escaping CO2 from the ferment will keep the rest out until it slows enough to insert the airlock.

I often put extra wort to ferment in growlers, which I use for my starters. Works just fine.

just from a science point... wouldn't you have less evaporation with high humidity because the air is already more saturated

spillindillon said:

just from a science point... wouldn't you have less evaporation with high humidity because the air is already more saturated

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I was going to say the same thing. I know when its less humid here (rare but happens) I boil off more than I do when its real humid.

Mysticmead said:

I was going to say the same thing. I know when its less humid here (rare but happens) I boil off more than I do when its real humid.

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Well, you are correct in theory. My problem resulted in that my wort came to a boil in record time. I'm guessing because of the very low humidity. Normally it's in the 60s. It was only 20 percent. The lack of wind didn't help my cause either. Hey don't mess up my excuse I have to blame someone might as well be Mother Nature. Its never the brewers fault!

Yeah.. Never the brewers fault. Don't worry I've ended up with too little and added water as well as ended up with too much. It happens. Still made beer

Yeah, humidity won't affect your coming to a boil. Water boils at a set temperature, regardless of humidity. Pressure changes BP, so maybe if barometric pressure was also very low that day, it affected your boil, (although the effect here is minimal)....also, is your super high efficiency based on a projected 6 gallons post boil, or your actual 7.5 gallons post boil?

Now that I've finished poking holes in your sails, it's nice that you get to screw around with an experiment!

Efficiency based off my 7.5 post boil. I was really worried that with so much extra wort I'd be way off. I was shooting for a OG of 1.050 with 6 gallons. Ended up with an OG of 1.045 with 7.5 gallons. I was really happy that I didn't end up with an American Light Pale Ale.

Normally it takes my wort just about 20-25 minutes to boil. It was rolling right at about 12 minutes. I learn something new every time I brew. I'll be watching the clock more carefully next time. If I boil that quick again I'll do a 90 min boil. Watch this will be my best ever beer and I will not be able to reproduce these events.