Today's Can I save this / I'm an idiot thread.

K, so the kind folks at AHS were kind enough to send my an extra 7# bucket of wheat LME with my Dunkelweizen kit that I bought! Sadly, I wish that I would have noticed this before I brewed this afternoon. OG came out around 1.103 or so, so it MIGHT be a little heavy....

How bad is this going to turn out? Am I just going to have a 12% wheat beer? Do I need to try to pitch some extra yeast (used white labs liquid with my first starter....)? Split it into 2 buckets and attempt 2 batches?

Just looking for ideas to keep from having to dump it.


Here is the full recipe:

2oz de-bittered black malt
1/2# Caramel Wheat
1/4# Caramunich Malt

7# Wheat extract (** used 14#)

1oz Spalt hops

White Labs Hefeweizen Ale Yeast


OG Target is 1.051. I was around 1.102 or so.

 

If you make one 5 gallon batch, you are going to have a big wheat beer on your hands! I would suggest splitting it if you have the equipment; if you made a big starter, you can try for a big brew. If you do that route, I would pitch another vial of the same strain used in the starter.

 

Don't dump it! Sheesh...I'd pitch a little more yeast. So you have a wheat beer that will kick your ass.

 

Would this big of a wheat turn out well? Or how would I split it to go that route? Just boil 1/2 of it up with another 2 1/2 gallons of water, and same with the other half (would assume adding some hops)?

Like the idea of the big beer though since I already brewed it though

 

Dilute with water. Sounds like you could double it. Boil another ounce of hops in a sausepan, filter through strainer, and add.

IMO the "big beer" will be a big nasty beer. 1 oz of hops in a 1.100 beer is going be hugely cloying. It will finish around 1.030 and be sweet as hell. Seriously, consider splitting it.

 

I'm with passedpawn. 1 oz of hops in 5 gallons of 1.103?!?! No thank you. Split the batch, dilute until you hit your target OG and get yourself another ounce of hops. And then dump some fruitty **** into one of them. Like a jug of POM juice. Your gf/swmbo will love you for it.

 

Would I need to boil the hops for an hour to get the full bittering out of them?

And I get that I would need to boil 5 more gallons of water, split the wort I have into 2 buckets, dump in the water and hop water then toss another yeast batch in each?

 

I've never had to do it, but from what I read I think you really only need to do it for like 15 minutes. Wheat beers arent very bitter anyway. The aroma and whatever small amount of bitterness you get will offset the sweetness.

Idk if I would go for another full 5 gallons. I would be careful as you dilute. Either calc it out or do it slowly and check your hydrometer as you go. I may even suggest you do that even if you calc it.

But other then that, yeah. And trust me on the POM wheat idea. Might as well get two beers out of the deal. And people will like it. I always get great reviews on my POM wheat from chicks.

 

Anyone chance anyone has beersmith handy and can give me a guess on how much water I would need in each batch?

 

You'll need to add the new hop solution first, then split, add more water, and more yeast to both.

 

Double it and you'll get about 1.050 each. Perfect.

 

Yeah beer smith says 1.052 if you add 5 gallons. I guess it does work linearly, who would have thought lol. (it makes total sense, its just too easy for some reason....)