I was hoping that smarter folks than me could offer some advice on a beer that turned out bad.
Allow me to begin where most good storys do, at the beginning.
Autumn of 2013, my friend and I brewed an old ale. 5 gallons, using only marris otter and fuggles. We began with 26 lb of grain and did a proper mash, sparged to about 8 gallons (my memory is fading a bit) and boiled it down to under 5 gallons in about 4.5 hours. Our OG was 1.125 which was awesome and I believe it was pitched with a huge starter of wlp004. May be that wasn't the ideal yeast to use but what is done is done.
fast forward a few months and we bottled it. somewhere in the bottling process we checked gravity, probably not the best order to do things but again it is done so, it was 1.042 or so. we bottled it and sat on it for a year checking bottles periodically to see if they were carbed up or not. None of them carbonated.
Because the beer was mostly undrinkable, we may have poured it on pancakes but we decided to dump all the remaining bottles into a 3 gallon carboy and pitch some more yeast in it and add some nutrient and energizer and see what happens. if it dropped 10 points we would have kegged it and tried to drink it but in 4 weeks it dropped 0 points. not a huge deal, nothing is lost because I wasnt going to drink it any way.
so to my query. I proposed to make this beer drinkable, we brew 2 gallons of a regular pale ale with morris otter and fuggles. 1.045 OG or so and let it ferment dry 1.003 or so When thats done we mix it with the remaining 2.5 gallons or so of the 1.045 beer and perhaps enjoy something drinkable in the 1.020 range.
so what do you guys think?
am I understanding the physics correctly?
is there a better way to salvage this?
or, am I screwed and I should just give up?
your advice is always appreciated, thank you
Allow me to begin where most good storys do, at the beginning.
Autumn of 2013, my friend and I brewed an old ale. 5 gallons, using only marris otter and fuggles. We began with 26 lb of grain and did a proper mash, sparged to about 8 gallons (my memory is fading a bit) and boiled it down to under 5 gallons in about 4.5 hours. Our OG was 1.125 which was awesome and I believe it was pitched with a huge starter of wlp004. May be that wasn't the ideal yeast to use but what is done is done.
fast forward a few months and we bottled it. somewhere in the bottling process we checked gravity, probably not the best order to do things but again it is done so, it was 1.042 or so. we bottled it and sat on it for a year checking bottles periodically to see if they were carbed up or not. None of them carbonated.
Because the beer was mostly undrinkable, we may have poured it on pancakes but we decided to dump all the remaining bottles into a 3 gallon carboy and pitch some more yeast in it and add some nutrient and energizer and see what happens. if it dropped 10 points we would have kegged it and tried to drink it but in 4 weeks it dropped 0 points. not a huge deal, nothing is lost because I wasnt going to drink it any way.
so to my query. I proposed to make this beer drinkable, we brew 2 gallons of a regular pale ale with morris otter and fuggles. 1.045 OG or so and let it ferment dry 1.003 or so When thats done we mix it with the remaining 2.5 gallons or so of the 1.045 beer and perhaps enjoy something drinkable in the 1.020 range.
so what do you guys think?
am I understanding the physics correctly?
is there a better way to salvage this?
or, am I screwed and I should just give up?
your advice is always appreciated, thank you
