about to bottle--advice needed

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Publius

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Hey guys,
So I've been lurking here awhile, learning a ton. Just recently got registered and looking forward to posting more. So right now I'm about to bottle a belgian blonde I've had in my primary fermenter for 3 weeks. Problem is, I ended up way under my OG and FG because of a dumb mistake I made on brew day (immersion chiller was leaking...didn't realize until I came back to the kettle after running into my kitchen for a few min and saw that the chiller had dumped about 1.5 gal of tap water into my 5 gal of wort. So needless to say, I've been worried about whether the finished beer is going to be too watered down to be drinkable. My OG was 1.040 and FG is 1.004. Just tasted it for the first time tonight, and as feared, it doesnt taste like much. I get some really nice beligan yeast aroma, but body and flavor are pretty much non-existent. I was going to bottle tonight, but thought I'd put it off for a day and see if you guys have any suggestions. Anything I can do to enhance the flavor of this brew that would go well with the aroma profile I've already got?
Thanks in advance! :mug:
 
Brew an extremely concentrated beer and blend it, do not carbonate until primary is done with concentrated beer, mix and prime/bottle.
 
I read a recipe in the "recipe" section where lemon zest was an addition to a sasion? May work?
 
Personally I would just bottle it up, and consider it a learning experience. It will probably make a nice lawnmower beer.

You could dry hop it too..
 
I read a recipe in the "recipe" section where lemon zest was an addition to a sasion? May work?

Yea, you could do that or age it on some fruit as well, would be an interesting summer ale.
 
If something like this happens to you again I would recommend trying to boil down your wort to concentrate it.

My advice for you at this point would be to just roll with it and bottle your beer. It will probably lack some body, mouthfeel, and flavor, but it could make a decent summer beer.

Share it with a few friends and fix your chiller for the next brew sesh.
 
thanks all. A few options to think about here. Over the last few minutes I've actually been sipping on the sample I pulled for my FG reading and now I'm starting to think after it carbs up it really may not be all that bad. That'll at least give it some mouthfeel...between that and the yeast it may at least be drinkable as a lawn mower beer. SWMBO may like it too...considering the calorie count per bottle is only going to be about 120! I do have some canned raspberries sitting around and could find some lemon zest...may try one of those two options as well. Will let you know how it goes!
 
Hey guys, an update: I ended up bottling as-is. I cracked open a bottle after a week and it was already well carbed, but pretty undrinkable. Very green with some solventy taste which I had not noticed before, but I assume came from letting my fermentation temp get too high too early. Sampled again at week 2 and it definitely mellowed out a good bit. Solvent taste not as strong and generally just a smoother and more appealing brew. After 3 weeks, its really pretty decent. Not exactly what I was going for but I like it. I actually just served some last night to some friends we had over and it was a hit. I'm looking forward to letting my remaining bottles sit for a few more weeks and seeing how they continue to age. I keep reading about how much can be "fixed" with a little bit of time, Im glad I got to experience that principle in action!
 
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