Fiasco 2 day brew

I'm going to start off by saying JUDGE ME! I know I did a million things wrong, so read on and let loose.

My wife and I decided to make an IPA. It would be our 3rd beer and 4th fermentation (we made a cider, but those are just pour and pitch ). We have done all partial mashes.

This IPA was suppose to be 1.057 OG.
5 gallon batch
5lbs Pale 2-row
3lb Golden Light DME
1oz Chinook 60min
1oz Northern Brewer 15min
1oz Cascade 10min
1oz Lemon grapefruit zest, 1oz crushed juniper berries, 2oz grated ginger 10min

We went through the normal process of mashing, boiling, cooling, pitching. I overpoured a little to 5.25 gallons AND forgot to take the OG before pitch, so should it a little and took it after. 1.032. What. The. Hell... I looked at the grain bags, which I still had aside in some pots, and noticed THEY WEREN'T CRUSHED. I don't know how I neglected to check before pouring into the mesh bags, but I'm a noob and it's a noob move. So WHAT THE HELL am I to do?!
I decided to take some Pils Light DME I had in the freezer, boil it up, and pitch it. Hopefully this would bring it up. 10oz DME in 1/2 gallon brought it up to 5.75 gallons and 1.035 SG. Great.
I said whatever, stuck it in a water bath, put the two grain bags in the fridge. I had too busy of a day the next day to lose any more sleep. So I come home the next day, and its bubbling away pretty well. I said F*CK IT, and decided to crush the soggy grains and mash them.
I stuck them half a bag at a time into my food processor and pulsed them for 5 seconds. I rebagged them, mashed, and sparged. Then I boiled it for a couple hours to bring down the volume. I brought it down to about .8 gallons and stuck it in a gallon growler. After cooling and shaking that bad boy, I thieved 1/2 gallon out of the carboy, poured the 2nd mash juice in, poured about 75% of what I thieved back, Jerry-rigged an overflow tube with a cut up airlock, bung, and siphon tube, stuck the end in a clean growler with water, and hoped for the best. The carboy is filled to the neck. I saved the 1/8th of a gallon of original brew and have it set aside with an airlock, not knowing what to do with it. Maybe pour it in at bottling? Who knows.

After an initial ferocious blow-off, it settled back to a normal bubble rate. Now I'm off to pray and sleep.

Let us know how it turns out. There is a calculation on figuring out how much DME to add to correct the pre-boil OG. I can't remember what it is, I think it was 1lb= 8 or 9 gravity points

First, Despite the headaches. It sounds like the beer will be saved.

Second, Normally I think of a partial mash as being a way to use your own specialty grains in addition to the ease of extracts. I don't see much purpose if the only grain you want to incorporate is 2-row. If I were making a partial mash IPA, most of the gravity would come from the extract appx 60% and then I would rely on vienna with some crystal or biscuity or honey malts to give it a real good flavor.

Third, I would wait until you are pretty solid on your technique befor using tricky ingredients like Juniper berries or Ginger. But don't be afraid to dry hop an IPA. It will be tough to overdue the hop aroma.

Enjoy the Beer.

HopLife said:

First, Despite the headaches. It sounds like the beer will be saved.

Second, Normally I think of a partial mash as being a way to use your own specialty grains in addition to the ease of extracts. I don't see much purpose if the only grain you want to incorporate is 2-row. If I were making a partial mash IPA, most of the gravity would come from the extract appx 60% and then I would rely on vienna with some crystal or biscuity or honey malts to give it a real good flavor.

Third, I would wait until you are pretty solid on your technique befor using tricky ingredients like Juniper berries or Ginger. But don't be afraid to dry hop an IPA. It will be tough to overdue the hop aroma.

Enjoy the Beer.

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I think I'm going to start crushing my own and doing all grain. And would dry hopping with chinook be any good? That's all I have on hand

I had a similar.experience, although sure to trying batch soaring and being an idiot. I thought I was going to end up with bud light. I just tried it and it is a damn fine extra pale ale. Don't know the og, don't know the alcohol content, but it sure tastes great. Good luck.

MCKemp said:

I think I'm going to start crushing my own and doing all grain. And would dry hopping with chinook be any good? That's all I have on hand

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Chinook is better used as a bittering hop. I have used it in small amounts as a dry hop. You can always try it. I would start with 1 or 2 ounces per 5 gallon batch.