Did I accidentally make a barleywine?

[Devon]

OK, first time doing a BIAB. I figured I'd start small with a 2 gallon Wee Heavy. I made two brain farts.

1. I didn't account for boiloff when I figured my mash/sparge volume.

2. I didn't take a preboil gravity measurement that would have made error 1 evident before boiling.

As it stands now I have one gallon of 1.10 OG Not-So-Wee Heavy. I figure I'll let it do it's thing and see how it comes out.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

OK, first time doing a BIAB. I figured I'd start small with a 2 gallon Wee Heavy. I made two brain farts.

1. I didn't account for boiloff when I figured my mash/sparge volume.

2. I didn't take a preboil gravity measurement that would have made error 1 evident before boiling.

As it stands now I have one gallon of 1.10 OG Not-So-Wee Heavy. I figure I'll let it do it's thing and see how it comes out.

good luck!

Nextime use my calculator to determine your volumes and temps on brew day.

Priceless BiabCalc

 

[Gavin C]

OK, first time doing a BIAB. I figured I'd start small with a 2 gallon Wee Heavy. I made two brain farts.

1. I didn't account for boiloff when I figured my mash/sparge volume.

2. I didn't take a preboil gravity measurement that would have made error 1 evident before boiling.

As it stands now I have one gallon of 1.10 OG Not-So-Wee Heavy. I figure I'll let it do it's thing and see how it comes out.

One thing you could do is make a hop-tea and add that to up the IBU's to balance out all the extra sugars in the wort. (I've never don that but the process seems simple enough)

I'd do that or nothing and see what happens.

Best of luck with it.

 

[tstanonis1]

Not much you can do now except wait it out. hopefully you did a yeast starter with a good surplus of yeast. I would make sure it was fully oxygenated if It's not too late. Your gonna have a high alcohol content which will make the yeast wanna quit early if there not really healthy. Try to keep your fermentation temps in the right range so they don't stress out.

just out of curiosity what were you trying to make?

 

[Devon]

just out of curiosity what were you trying to make?

I was a Scottish 80 Shilling Ale, a wee heavy. Came out very heavy.

24 hours in and there hasn't been a single bubble of activity through the blowoff I thought I'd need. If nothing else this has been a practical lesson in dotting your I's and crossing your T's. No detail is too small, especially on your first attempt.

 

[tstanonis1]

Give it some time, the high gravity probably just shocked the yeast a bit but it should take off. make sure your blow off device doesn't clog up. you got enough energy in that vessel for a nuclear bomb! :rockin:

 

[Devon]

It lives!

It took three days, but it's now bubbling away steadily. I had bought a second packet of yeast, just in case, and was literally just about to pitch it in when I saw the first bubble.

 

[Bellybuster]

Some of my errors were some of my best beers, sadly some of the worst too. Hope it works out.

 

[Devon]

Even if it's swill I can probably choke down a gallon.

 

[LostHopper]

It lives!

It took three days, but it's now bubbling away steadily. I had bought a second packet of yeast, just in case, and was literally just about to pitch it in when I saw the first bubble.

just buying more yeast is a reliable way to get fermentation started

 

[marc1]

If it happens again you could also top up with water before fermentation. Actually, you could probably dilute it before bottling, too. If you're unsure, you could test it out by separating out a few bottles worth at packaging time, dilute, prime, and then bottle separately. Then you'd have a high gravity and a regular gravity version to try.