Can you re-brew a batch??

[Wester]

My Irish stout kit seems to have gone wrong, not sure why. It's not infected just watery and weak. can I try and referment the brew by putting them back into the bin, add more fermentables and yeast or do I just have to throw them out?

 

[badbrew]

Where are you at in all of this?

 

[broadbill]

Just drink it and rebrew it.

 

[TopherM]

Sounds like you either didn't ferment long enough or you added too much water at top-off time.

You can add more fermentables and more yeast, but unfortunately, you are only going to raise the ABV and dry out the beer, you can't really add any body to the beer post-fermentation. The body comes from the grains, and you can't add more grains at this point.

Describe your process a bit more so we can figure out where you went wrong, then learn from your mistake. That's about the best you can do at this point...

 

[eastoak]

My Irish stout kit seems to have gone wrong, not sure why. It's not infected just watery and weak. can I try and referment the brew by putting them back into the bin, add more fermentables and yeast or do I just have to throw them out?

don't polish a turd, dump it or set it aside and brew another beer. i'm a new brewer, 1 yr under my belt but my beer has gotten progressively better with time. some people start out making great beer right away but i was not one of those, i dumped a lot of beer. just yesterday i dumped 5-6 bombers and about that many 12oz bottles of beer i made back in feb of this yr, it did not get any better with time; crystal clear but very little body, carbonation or head. keep at it and you will become a better brewer.

 

[RM-MN]

I think you are just sampling too soon. A good stout will take 2 to 3 months for all the flavors to "come together" and then it will have good body and good taste. Before that it seems watery.

 

[Wester]

Yeah, I think the mistake was too much water during topup alright. I'll stick them in the attic and see if they taste better in a few months.

Thanks a mill.

 

[starrfish]

Bottle it call it a mild and try again! Milds make great session beers as they are low alcohol, and you can consume many in a sitting with out getting stupid. Also the carbonation makes for a bit more mouth feel. Don't wait a few months on a low hopped beer you'll end up with cardboard taste in a few months. Better off drinking a thin good tasting beer sooner than crappy cardboard oxidized beer later.

I'm assuming it's been fermented for a minimum of 2 weeks and hydrometer reading has been stable for 2 consecutive readings?

You can also boil some malto dextrine in a qt of water along with priming sugar, between a 1/4 & 1/2 lb of malto dextrine should do ok depending on how thin you feel it is, add to bottom of bottling bucket and rack on top to mix well, and bottle. the malto dex should add a good amount of body back.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

what's your recipie? perhaps that's what it is supposed to taste like.

 

[NOISEpollution]

Yeah, I think the mistake was too much water during topup alright. I'll stick them in the attic and see if they taste better in a few months.

Thanks a mill.

How much did you top off with? Anything 3 gallons or less should be fine. Assuming you're mashing and sparging, you shouldn't need to top off more than 3 gallons.

What off flavors are you tasting? Like someone already mentioned, stouts take longer to finish. Also, you'd be surprised how different a beer can taste after a couple weeks in the bottle. I used to make that mistake when I first started brewing. I'd taste it a week after bottling and wonder why it tasted strange. I'd forget about it and label it as a screwed up batch. When I'd pull it out a few weeks later to show my friends how bad I'd screwed up, it'd actually taste pretty good.

Give it a few more weeks but put simply, no, you can't re-brew it. Start over and learn from your mistakes. Your beers will be better for it.

 

[TopherM]

Another option would be to brew another batch of the same stout, make it more concentrated, like 3-4 gallons, then mix the two after fermentation of the 2nd.