Brew Days make me laugh....then cry.

[laiced]

So to day was the day to brew my second batch of beer. I really learned a lot from my first batch (as far as processes go) and I felt much more comfortable with every step.....I even started with 6 gallons of water because my last batch lost about a gallon via evaporation.

UNTIL

A storm kicked up with about 1/2 hour left in my boil...at first it was a sprinkle so I decided to ride it out....then I came inside for about 3 minutes to look up something on these here forums, and BOOM! the rain came a'pourin'!

So I grabbed my brewpot off of the burner and ran it into the garage, then grabbed my burner and tank and got it fired back up as quickly as possible.

Whew! That was close! The rest of the boil went perfect, added honey at flameout and cranked up the immersion chiller...wort down to 75 in under 10 minutes, so I smiled a bit.

Things were back on track and going smoothly again....

UNTIL

I grabbed the yeast starter and dumped it straight into the wort WITHOUT transferring the wort into my fermenter and WITHOUT aerating the wort first. So I quickly pour a bit over 5 gallons of wort into the fermenter, snap the top on, and plug it with an airlock....

Now I have almost another gallon of wort still sitting in the brewpot because I have no idea what to do with it.

So with having more than 5 gallons after boil, I am stuck with a watered down beer and WASTED yeast which is sitting in my brewpot as well.....

I am extremely frustrated to say the least....

 

[JonM]

Still beats being at work, right?

(And you can freeze that leftover wort and use it for starters later.)

Cheers!

 

[VanHolton]

Your beer will be fine. It's probably best you didn't take a hydro reading so that you don't know how mad to be at yourself And on the plus side, you learned something! Nice work moving the boil, by the way. Seriously though, everything will be fine.

 

[Xcorpia]

Since the wort is already pitched I would recomend placing the extra gallon in a sanitized plastic gallon jug with an extra airlock or something like a balloon so it can expand while keeping it airtight. Dont worry the 5 gallon beer will be fine, just with less alcohol. Unless you REALLY want it at the specified OG, which you can achieve by boiling water with the same DME to make a very concentrated solution. Cool and add carefully, stirring and measuring SG until hitting the target. Then save the extra solution for a starter.

 

[laiced]

I actually did get a reading before pitching the yeast, which frustrates me even more to know that I was doing everything perfectly....

1.041 OG. Recipe called for 1.052....bummer

 

[Bithead]

So you started with 6 gallons, boiled for an hour and ended up with 6 gallons? I'd throw the last bit of wort in with the rest if there's room in the fermenter.

 

[cjb]

Yeah, just throw the extra gallon in an empty milk jug or something. No use wasting it...