First attempt and of course I screwed up - can I salvage it?

Well this is embarrassing but the good news is, Google searches suggest I'm not alone in screwing up some aspects of my first brew.

I'm brewing a dry stout and followed the recipe for the boil to a T... until. I found myself with a bag of dextrose that wasn't on my list. Foolishly I decided I must have missed something and tossed it into the boil. Did I mention I'd had a few during the boil and the pizza was late? Yeah, that was my priming sugar, all of it.

Still clueless as to what I'd done I cooled things down to 70 and then transferred the wort to my fermenting bucket and pitched my yeast packet (Safale US-05). Note that I don't mention a gravity reading because I'm an idiot and I didn't take one.

I had some activity in my airlock within 40 minutes and by the following day it was bubbling pretty consistently. The next day the activity decreased and as of today (5 days in) I'm only seeing the occasional bubble and from what I can see through the side of the bucket, while I did get some foam, it was only an inch or two high. Air coming out of the airlock smells very sweet.

From what I have read the general advice is, wait it out, but I'm wondering if the amount of sugar might have overstressed the yeast.

So my questions (sorry for the long back story): Should I consider pitching additional yeast meant for a high ABV beer in order to account for the additional sugar I added to my wort? I'd rather have a dry and strong beer than something akin to a soda

How long should I wait before taking a gravity reading to see where things are at? And really, will it even be useful given my starting gravity was likely much higher than intended for the recipe?

Regardless I plan to let this one ferment for at least 4 weeks total but I worry that if the yeast was stressed initially, sitting that long opens me up to infection (city living = a dusty apartment).

Thanks in advance! I am reading up on the topic as I should have done before I started now, so if nothing else, I shouldn't make these mistakes again.

-- Nathan

You'll be fine. The extra sugar will ferment out leaving the beer slightly more dry and strong than if you hadn't added the sugar.

how much sugar did you add? I usually toss a pound into my Belgians and IPAs. Id be more worried about controlling your fermentation temps at this point

Sounds like I've gone and started another Did I Ruin It thread, oops.

The entire bag they included which I presume was the default amount of dextrose needed to prime 5 gallons for bottling.

Temp control has been decent, my apartments ambient temp is generally between 63 and 70, this week things are unusually hot and I found my bucket reporting 76 degrees when I got home yesterday. I've since instituted the damp towel wrap + fan solution to make sure it doesn't get any warmer than 73 or so during the day.

-- Nathan

N4teTheGreat said:

Well this is embarrassing but the good news is, Google searches suggest I'm not alone in screwing up some aspects of my first brew.

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Everyone makes mistakes, you should be embarrassed. If this the worst thing you did for your first brew, consider it a success.

N4teTheGreat said:

I'm brewing a dry stout and followed the recipe for the boil to a T... until. I found myself with a bag of dextrose that wasn't on my list. Foolishly I decided I must have missed something and tossed it into the boil. Did I mention I'd had a few during the boil and the pizza was late? Yeah, that was my priming sugar, all of it.

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As others have said, not a big deal. It will be a little drier than originally expected, but it's a dry stout . That much sugar shouldn't affect it too much.

N4teTheGreat said:

Still clueless as to what I'd done I cooled things down to 70 and then transferred the wort to my fermenting bucket and pitched my yeast packet (Safale US-05). Note that I don't mention a gravity reading because I'm an idiot and I didn't take one.

Click to expand...

I still forget to take gravity readings.

N4teTheGreat said:

I had some activity in my airlock within 40 minutes and by the following day it was bubbling pretty consistently. The next day the activity decreased and as of today (5 days in) I'm only seeing the occasional bubble and from what I can see through the side of the bucket, while I did get some foam, it was only an inch or two high. Air coming out of the airlock smells very sweet.

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Never trust the airlock activity, never ever. Keep that in mind for the days when it doesn't bubble.

N4teTheGreat said:

From what I have read the general advice is, wait it out, but I'm wondering if the amount of sugar might have overstressed the yeast.

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You would have to do a lot more to stress them out.

N4teTheGreat said:

So my questions (sorry for the long back story): Should I consider pitching additional yeast meant for a high ABV beer in order to account for the additional sugar I added to my wort? I'd rather have a dry and strong beer than something akin to a soda

Click to expand...

Don't bother pitching more, you are fine. It's not going to raise the ABV that much. Priming sugar only raises the ABV up a fraction.

N4teTheGreat said:

How long should I wait before taking a gravity reading to see where things are at? And really, will it even be useful given my starting gravity was likely much higher than intended for the recipe?

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I like to sit around 2 weeks traditionally, 3 if it's a bigger beer. This allows time for fermentation to complete, and for the yeast to clean up any other flavors in the beer. That's not hard science, it's just what I do. You can use calculators like Brewers Friend to calculate what the OG in theory would have been after the sugar. But the FG is really only important now to make sure fermentation is complete.

N4teTheGreat said:

Regardless I plan to let this one ferment for at least 4 weeks total but I worry that if the yeast was stressed initially, sitting that long opens me up to infection (city living = a dusty apartment).

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If you keep everything sealed up tight and the airlock topped off, you won't have an infection. All assuming you sanitized properly before hand.

There's a learning curve with this hobby and we have all made mistakes. The little mistakes you made here are by no means biggies. Your beer will be fine, the yeast will be fine. No worries.

Sounds good chief! You'll be fine.

You will need something else to prime with, though.

N4teTheGreat said:

How long should I wait before taking a gravity reading to see where things are at? And really, will it even be useful given my starting gravity was likely much higher than intended for the recipe?

Regardless I plan to let this one ferment for at least 4 weeks total but I worry that if the yeast was stressed initially, sitting that long opens me up to infection (city living = a dusty apartment).

Click to expand...

There are different opinions about taking gravity samples, but I leave it alone until three days before bottling day. Take a sample. On bottling day take another sample. If gravity is stable, bottle. If not, wait a few more days and sample again. I generally bottle at three weeks, and gravity has always been stable. Papazian cautioned against "mucking about in your beer", and I agree. The more you open it, the more chance of contamination or oxidation. jmo

N4teTheGreat said:

Temp control has been decent, my apartments ambient temp is generally between 63 and 70, this week things are unusually hot and I found my bucket reporting 76 degrees when I got home yesterday. I've since instituted the damp towel wrap + fan solution to make sure it doesn't get any warmer than 73 or so during the day.

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Don't even sweat the bit of extra sugar in the brew -- 5 oz should have little impact on flavor other than to make it a touch drier. And the extra bit of gravity shouldn't be enough to shift you into serious underpitching territory.

Fermentation temps are potentially another story. You do the best you can with summer temps, of course, but in my experience fermenting above 70 (and remember that yeast activity will kick the temp in the fermenter up 5 or so degrees above ambient in the first few, crucial days of fermentation) puts you at risk of off-flavors. You're making a stout which has some nice strong coffee/roast/chocolate elements that will mask underlying imperfections. But consider modifying your process for future brews to keep the temp inside the fermenter consistently below 70. I built a chest freezer fermentation chamber after about six months of brewing and noticed an immediate and substantial improvement in flavor. But I've read that many get good results using the cheaper water bucket + ice + towel + fan evaporative cooling method.

Your just gonna get more alcohol, which I guess some would consider a problem but not most people on here

Thanks everyone! I given that fermentation has been slow sounds like waiting four suspenseful weeks is my best bet before thinking about bottling.

As far as keeping temps down, my apartment is a mere 640sf shared by two people, a cat, and a dog so a cooler won't really work. I'll have to look into some more space efficient options or I'll have to learn to appreciate Saisons more.

-- Nathan

N4teTheGreat said:

As far as keeping temps down, my apartment is a mere 640sf shared by two people, a cat, and a dog so a cooler won't really work. I'll have to look into some more space efficient options or I'll have to learn to appreciate Saisons more.

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Nothing wrong with saisons! But it sounds like you're already experimenting with wet towel + fan, so maybe it wouldn't be a huge leap to add a tub and drop in frozen water bottles semi-regularly during the first four or five days to control temps? I've never tried it, but here's a thread with pics and some description of a simple system:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showpost.php?p=2328724&postcount=3

Only problem would be figuring out where to store the tub. I'm currently out of space and don't even have anywhere to put my boil kettle or fermentor when not in use. Of course I suppose the obvious solution would be to just always be brewing... :-D

-- Nathan

N4teTheGreat said:

Of course I suppose the obvious solution would be to just always be brewing... :-D

-- Nathan

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Now you're talkin'!

Alright so it's been sitting in the fermentor for four weeks now. I took a gravity reading tonight 1.020 corrected for 70 degree temp of the fermentor to 1.021. From what I've read, this might be high, but since I was dumb and didn't take an OG reading, I can't be sure. Of course I'll take another reading Sunday to see if anything has changed.

Beer looked good (first time I've opened the fermentor), condensation on the lid, clear, somewhat oily looking surface, residue stuck to the sides of the fermentor around 2 inches above the beer. I suppose I should have tasted it, but I didn't want to keep the fermentor open any longer that needed. Given that my addition of dextrose during the boil, I probably had a higher OG to begin with. Burps from the airlock smell like a stout. Guess I'll see what Monday brings.

-- Nathan

Oh and here's a pic the s/o took. I guess I could grab some beer with my wine thief but I think I should just leave it alone until Sunday.

-- Nathan

N4teTheGreat said:

Oh and here's a pic the s/o took. I guess I could grab some beer with my wine thief but I think I should just leave it alone until Sunday.

-- Nathan

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Looks like you got beer there...congratulations!

Cheers!

Thanks! As long as the gravity reading is the same Sunday, I'm planning to bottle early next week.

-- Nathan