Did I screw up bad?

[chasemandingo]

So I brewed an extract pale ale yesterday. Did 25 minute boil with 1 oz columbus at 25, 1.5 once cascade at 15, .5 oz cascade at 5. So I was shooting for an IBU of 42. However, 5 minutes or so into the boil I came out to the kitchen to find that I had a very small boil over. I have a ****ty stove and need to keep the lid on my boiling pot to keep a roaring boil. Anyway, a large amount of hops escaped for the hop bag and ended up stuck to the sides and lid of the pot. I didn't even think about it at the time. Eventually, once my boil was over and the hop bags were removed my girlfriend noticed the first bag didn't have very much hops in it. The bag itself didn't have any holes in it or anything. Now I am worrying about the IBU's being too low. Am I worrying for no reason? I will taste test the beer post fermentation to see if the IBUs are off. Is there anything I could do to remedy the situation if that happens to be the case?

 

[grainbill]

chalk one up to better next time...or, never leave boiling wort unattended....
I wouldn't worry about it, you can always dry hop...

 

[wardens355]

Did you taste the wort when taking gravity? Was it bitter enough? I have never tried, but maybe you could make a hop tea and add it to the finished beer. If it were me, I wouldn't sweat it and just live with the beer as is.

I suggest getting Fermcap or another defoamer to add to the wort before it starts boiling next time. However, with the lid on you will probably always have boil over. Can you achieve boil with the lid partially on? I used to have to do that in my extract days with a smaller pot, and I would have to scrape the hop material off the side of the kettle and mix it back into the wort when the boilovers occured.

 

[cernst151]

You didn't screw up bad. Assuming everything else was fine you will have a perfectly fine beer. Depending on how much of your hops boiled out it may be slightly less bitter than expected. Definitely not a big deal. Maybe not exactly the beer you were looking for but a beer you can be happy drinking while you make the beer you were looking for.

 

[flars]

You don't need a roaring boil. Just enough heat to keep most of the wort surface rolling.

 

[stratslinger]

You don't need a roaring boil. Just enough heat to keep most of the wort surface rolling.

Absolutely this - a lot of people seem to think they need to boil the crap out of their wort, when in actuality all you really need is a gentle rolling boil.

Also, though its less of an issue with extract than it is with all grain, boiling with the lid on will let the precursors to DMS build up in your wort, and you can wind up with some funky off flavors - it's best to leave at least some room for steam to escape.

 

[eadavis80]

You can dry hop to hope to add some 'hoppiness' to it, but hey - you'll get beer. Boil overs happen. But, maybe it's time to think about a propane tank and The Burner outdoor burner from N. Brewer - best $50 ever and sometimes they run specials where it's free with a purchase of X amount.

 

[normonster]

You're good. Drink it.

 

[chasemandingo]

K lol. Thank you all for alleviating some of my worries. Yes I plan on dry hopping to add more hop aromas. If I didn't achieve the bitterness I was looking for I will just deal with it. As long as I have a drinkable beer lol. Anyone else have issues with hops escaping from there hoping bags? Mine are a cloth like material with a little give to them. Also, how easy is it to control the temp when boiling outside on a propane burner. I have difficulty keeping the temp at 155 for my steeping grains. I also want to move up to partial mashes here in the near future and temp control is more important as I understand it.

 

[normonster]

It will depend on your burner, kettle, etc. when mashing I generally give the MT maybe 4 blasts of heat through an hour (10 gallon batches in a SS 15 gallon kettle) and that keeps me at 150.

 

[pendulum]

I've got the Darkstar burner that NB offers on their website and I'm able to control temperature just fine. The gauge on the line does a great job of controlling the flow of propane and thus creates smaller/larger flames to keep temp stable.