Made a Mistake; Looking for Advice

So I looked up a recipe quickly on beersmith right before walking into the home-brew store and had them mix and crush the grains for me. After mixing a couple together the guy asked how large of a batch I was doing...I looked down at the recipe again and realized it was for a 20 gallon recipe. By the time I realized what happened they had already mixed stuff together, so I was on the hook for it.

Long story short, I have mixed crushed grains for a 20 gallon brew, but my equipment is setup for 5 gallon batches. The grains I have are in two sealed plastic bags. I am thinking I could fully mix them up in a 5 gallon bucket and then pull out 25% of them to make my 5 gallon batch.

Would this work or would I end up with not the right mix of grains? Should I just trash them and start over? I an torn because I hate to burn the money (50 bucks) on the grain, but I also don't want to invest a full brew day into a bad batch.

 

I think, if I were faced with this dilemma, I would mix the grist until it looks uniform, divide it in quarters, and brew one 5 gallon batch and see what happens. You might not get the exact beer you planned for, but it's bound to be close. You'll just have a heck of a lot of it. I've heard of worse problems. Good luck!

 

Can you post the grain bill?

 

Whats the total weight of the grains?

 

Uniformly mix then brew 4 batches where you change the yeast or hop variable. You've set yourself up for a kickass exbeeriment.

 

Grain bill - Like I said, I just pulled up a random cream ale recipe and didn't really look at it (hence the mistake)...obviously had I looked at the 20 lb Pale Malt I would have realized something was off.

20lb Pale Malt (2 row)
5 lb Pilsner (2 row)
5 lb Vienna Malt
2 lb cara-pils/dextrine
1.5 lb caraamber
chinook hops at various times

 

Something to consider. As you mix the grains in a pail, a lot of the fines will fall to the bottom, and a higher percentage of husk towards the top. If you mix and mix and mix, the top 25% will be quite a bit different than the bottom 25%.

 

If it fits in a pail with a lid, roll it to mix it, then stand it up.

 

Always buy your grains in separate bags to prevent this. I too learned this the hard way, only the shop gave me the wrong malt. Since it was their fault, they replaced them, but the 30 min ride one way was a loss. There are zero advantages of having a shop mix your grains together.

 

Agreed. I now buy my grains separately and do my own mixing and measuring of the recipes. Then I bring it back to the lhbs to be ground. Saves headaches and also keeps me from monopolizing too much of the lhbs owner's time.

 

I agree with others here. As long as you aren't entering a competition or worried about brewing a "True to Style" beer, I would simply segregate into four separate sections and have fun with different yeast, hops, or processes. White Labs does this in their tasting room. The same recipe with four different yeasts so you can taste the effect of the yeast on each. However, if you are set up for five gallon batches you need to consider that once the grain is milled it does have a "shelf life" just like coffee grinds. Sounds like you might be busy for the next couple of weeks! Might have to invest in some more fermenters as well. Cheers!

 

I learned to take my grain home in individual bags and grind them myself.
After the first few experiences doing all grain I found my efficiencies were low, so I had to make a few adjustments.
The pre-mixed wheat and barley grinds from the LBHS were giving me inconsistently sized grist, so I learned quickly to associate it with a lower pre-boil mash gravity. Turning the wheat to near flour helped speed conversion and boosted the gravity. Getting stable mash temps helped.

Getting the grains in individual marked bags helps. I sometimes plan brews ahead of time, so when Real Life makes me forget things, it's nice having the grains sorted and labeled.

 

Just go back to the shop and tell them what happened, laugh about it and see what they say. Worst case scenario use their scale to weigh the bags out into quarters.

 

Looking at the grain bill i wouldn't be too worried about the mix. The batches may differ a bit though. You could almost treat one batch as pale malt and add grains to make a darker beer if you don't want all batches the same.
I'm sure as is even with poor mixing they won't be too bad, just different.