RDWHAHB got me in trouble

Well I wouldnt say it got me in trouble, and I dont think it ruined my beer. So here is what I did. Got a Brewers Best Holiday Ale kit yesterday. Excited about brewing I started steeping and went ahead and poped the top on an Imperial pale ale. everything went fine with the exception of a way to early spice pack addition. of course 3 HB's in I was bound to do something wrong. So my question is this, did I loose all the flavor from the spice pack by adding it with bittering hops rather than flavoring? If so is any recomendations on getting these flavors back? Can I buy another spice pack and maybe dump half into the primary? Some suggestions or input please

It's RDWHAHB, not RDPAH3HB.

Now that you boiled spices for 60 minutes is the time to RDWHAHB. You'll still have spice flavors most likely, and I'm not sure I'd advise adding more. The most likely problem will be tannins or a little astringent bitterness from boiling spices too long. What spices are in that kit?

1oz sweet orange peel, cinnamon 1tsp, cardamom seed 1tsp, ginger 1/2 tsp

RDWHAHB.... I say try it and if its not what you wanted make another batch. Either way some of the best brews are by mistake. I wouldnt do anything to it and see how it comes out.

dwarven_stout said:

. . . . . The most likely problem will be tannins or a little astringent bitterness from boiling spices too long. What spices are in that kit?

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+1, bitterness is what I get when I boil spices too long, still waiting on a small beer to mellow in secondary, going on 4 months. Did you taste it?

Perhaps you could add some Allspice when you dry hop. If you keg, don't worry you can always change it. If you bottle, then it should still turn out fine.

no i didnt taste last night. I figured i would wait a week or so and taste when i take an SG. It smells wonderfull though. I do bottle and a small amount of allspice couldnt hurt i guess

This is a fairly high gravity beer so I had planed on leaving in primary for 3 weeks and mybe secondary 2 and bottle 3-4 so my plan was it would be drinkable around Christmas time

I would leave it alone and not try to fix any thing I thought I did wrong. Why ? I usually am wrong and screw it up in another way.

johnheather125 said:

no i didnt taste last night. I figured i would wait a week or so and taste when i take an SG. It smells wonderfull though. I do bottle and a small amount of allspice couldnt hurt i guess

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in a week or so you're going to have a lot more of a FG than a SG, i check SG before i pitch yeast.

MrManifesto said:

in a week or so you're going to have a lot more of a FG than a SG, i check SG before i pitch yeast.

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Not quite:

SG = specific gravity. ALL gravity measurements are specific gravity measurements.

OG = the original "specific gravity" reading
FG = the final "specific gravity" reading = the gravity of the beer when fermentation has finished.

many people here use SG to mean starting gravity. i do, but i've seen it both ways. i think a lot of people may be confused using SG to mean specific gravity...

I agree SG means specific gravity. Now the OG is the original gravity before you pitch yeast. FG is final gravity when fermentation is done. So all are SG readings one is just a begining(OG) and one is a final (FG). that is the way I understand it I may be wrlong though

I brewed this kit up about 3 weeks ago, and almost did the same thing. My advise would be let it sit for at least 2 weeks before doing anything, and then take ur gravity readings, and taste the sample.

I would be very hesitant to throw allspice in there solely because of anise (sp?). I am not a huge fan of the licorice flavor, and if you use too much allspice you may have a lot of that. Do you have a LHBS? If so, you might check and see if they have the components of the spice pack. Mine has almost the same spice pack premixed. If you don't think you got enough of the flavor, I'd add maybe half of that pack near the end of primary if you arent going to secondary.

My plan is to taste it first any way. I brewed this on saturday and had to break out the blow off tube last night. Got home from work and it was start to come through the air lock. Either way I am almost positive the beer will be drinkable at the least. Who knows it could turn out wonderful.

I like to secondary, almost more for the 'taste and tweak' opportunity than for any other reason. Even though it's green and uncarbonated, after 2-3 weeks in primary I can get a fair guess how it's going to turn out.

Just an update I took an SG reading today, and had a little taste (of course) I must say that it is not to bad. I can still smell and taste the spices I added way to early. There is a slight astrigent taste, but nothing I feel time wont fix. I am a noob to homebrewing and i must I am pretty impressed with all 3 of my batches so far. I will defenatly drink this holiday ale

Taste it when its done and youve racked it to a keg/bottling bucket. If you want more spice then just add to keg/bottling bucket by boiling with your priming agent or just a very small amount of water if your kegging.