Beer is watery

[Xcorpia]

Hi:

I brewed a Blue Moon clone the other night. By the time the wort was chilled I was so hammered https://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/images/smilies/buck.gif I dropped the racking cane. Instead of sanitizing it I proceeded to pour the wort from the pot into the carboy without a funnel. Of course I spilled a lot of wort and then I topped the missing volume with water. I saw some airlock activity a few days later but it stopped. Today I tasted a sample and it smells and tastes like watered down bubble gum.

I heard from a coworker you can filter out the excess water by freezing the beer and racking the liquid portion into another fermentor. Is this true? How can I fix my beer?

Thanks!

 

[beninan]

How much water did you use to top off compared to the amount of beer left? I wouldn't do the freezing trick, as the beer portion will freeze as well, so when you transfer, you will loose water and beer, and be left with a lot less beer at a higher alcohol. I would leave it alone and treat it as any other beer. Who knows, maybe after it's done and bottle conditioned/kegged you will love it. If not, maybe you have some BMC drinking friends that like the taste of watery beer?

 

[thomrenault]

It's probably fine, if it tastes sweet then it's not done. You'll probably end up with something drinkable.

 

[RCCOLA]

You can always boil, cool, and add some malt extract at any time. Just only use enough water to dissolve it in. Maybe 2lbs? depending on how much of the original wort that you lost.

 

[Nurmey]

Green, uncarbonated beer always tastes watery. Don't screw around with your beer; finish it properly and you will be fine.

Stupid actions after your "think" you messed up your beer will indeed mess up your beer.

 

[Xcorpia]

Thanks for all the advise. I don't remember exactly how much I lost, it was between 1/3 to 1/2 of the wort. I think I'm going to follow RCCOLA's advise and boil some concentrated wort and add it. What's the worse that could happen? stronger beer? I don't mind the extra alcohol.

 

[thomrenault]

Yeah it will strengthen the flavor and alcohol content. Be careful when you're adding it to be sanitary, also you should cool it off before you pour it in. After that just let it sit for 2 weeks. If you're having trouble waiting, head out to the store and buy a 12 pack of good beer.

 

[Xcorpia]

LOL @ thomrenault. I'm cooling the extra wort I boiled right now. Took about 2 gallons of the watered down wort and followed the same brewing steps as the original wort, but scaled down to approximately half the amounts. Let's see how my Frankenstein comes out. I know it's not going to be a Blue Moon clone anymore but I'm confident it will be some great tasting beer, probably even better! In the meanwhile I can enjoy some of my West Coast Pale Ale and some DFH 90 min IPA.

 

[davefleck]

If you lost half or a third of the wort you'll want to not only add some malt but hops as well otherwise you may find a very sweet beer.

take 1/3 the bittering hops, boil them for 60min in a pot, then add the dry or liquid malt extract. It should be a lot thicker then your wort so don't use too much water.

Too little may cause carmalization so stir it well!

 

[Xcorpia]

Thanks for the reminder davefleck. I did add more hops. When I mixed the more concentrated wort with the watery one I tasted it. It tasted perfect! I'm also very excited because the airlock is bubbling like crazy. I can't wait until this beer is done!

 

[Xcorpia]

I bottled this batch 2 weeks ago and cracked a bottle open today. It's still under-carbed and it tastes like bubblegum. I don't know if its because it's still green or because I stressed the yeast when I boiled the 2 gallons of wort. I guess time will tell.

 

[thomrenault]

Weird... Oh well, the great thing about homebrew is, you can always make another batch.

 

[RM-MN]

I bottled this batch 2 weeks ago and cracked a bottle open today. It's still under-carbed and it tastes like bubblegum. I don't know if its because it's still green or because I stressed the yeast when I boiled the 2 gallons of wort. I guess time will tell.

Hopefully you have learned from this that you shouldn't start drinking until the wort is in the fermenter and the yeast is pitched. That's the time to celebrate.

You may do well to get a fermenter bucket as you can then just pour the wort in instead of trying to rack it or pour it through a funnel.

 

[Xcorpia]

So I tried one last night. It tastes awesome! I read Revvy's post about not giving up on your brew and lo and behold he was right. Give the yeasties some time and they will clean out the beer.

 

[beninan]

Congratulations!