OP
OP
bigringking
Active Member
Reporting back on my dilution situaish. I ended up with 3 conditions. Undiluted lower ABV beer that I didn't change, diluted higher ABV beer, and undiluted higher ABV beer left over due to the excess volume.
I calculated the amount of dilution water I needed to add to the 7% beer, boiled, and cooled that. I mentally subtracted 5 gallons from that Big Mouth Bubbler fermenter which left me with about 2 gallons of 7% beer which went into its own keg - just to see. I always rack into pinlock kegs that have been filled with Starsan then purged with CO2. I don't use the jumper method espoused by Drew Beechum et al for reasons I won't bore you with now. Then I force carbed that keg and cooled it to serving temp. Maybe due to oxygen (most likely), or poor racking technique, or poor sanitization, that beer was ass. Dumped it. It was only 2 gallons, and I still had 10G of what I hoped would be good beer so it was bonus beer anyway.
I diluted the 7% beer with water I had boiled and cooled. I added no salts to the dilution water. I racked the diluted beer into a keg, then added priming sugar for the 5 gallons of beer - based on recommendations here. I think this saved the beer. It turned out great-ish. I knew I had over-boiled the 60 minute hop addition by at least 15 minutes so the base bitterness was not as pleasant as I wanted. But the beer flavor, hop flavor, head retention (mostly), and aroma were good enough for me - good enough for the excess bitterness. The color is about what you'd expect for a well done 2 Hearted homage, although I do still have a little haze. I'm convinced that the priming sugar and yeasties gobbling up the O2 that was induced in all of these shenanigans and left the beer as good as it could possibly be. It is not perfect by any means but given where it started, I can not complain at all. My buddy had nick-named my 2H homage 'Octovalved' in honor of the four valves in a heart times two. I cheekily call this beer 'Septovalved'. Damn I'm clever. Just ask me.
The undiluted 6.8% ended up great - except for the aforementioned excess bitterness from the longer hop boil. The head retention on this one is even nicer than the diluted beer, which doesn't surprise me.
I don't know what the final ABV of the diluted beer is. I know I should check. It just hasn't made it high enough on my To Do list. But I know that it is lower than the 6.8%. I mean duh. It is nice to have something with a little less punch but still tasty and hoppy. I like to have 2-3 full pints on a Friday and Saturday and Sunday night without being completely toasted. Which is why I wanted to dilute the bigger beer. I'm not going for a true clone of 2H, just something that tastes as good as that but fits my other wants. Long and short of this for me is that I learned a little bit more about the dilution process, and I learned that I'm getting closer to what I'm going for with this beer. I do truly appreciate the advice and comments you've left. They all poured into my tiny little brain and filtered through my gray matter to get me where I ended up which I consider a success.
I calculated the amount of dilution water I needed to add to the 7% beer, boiled, and cooled that. I mentally subtracted 5 gallons from that Big Mouth Bubbler fermenter which left me with about 2 gallons of 7% beer which went into its own keg - just to see. I always rack into pinlock kegs that have been filled with Starsan then purged with CO2. I don't use the jumper method espoused by Drew Beechum et al for reasons I won't bore you with now. Then I force carbed that keg and cooled it to serving temp. Maybe due to oxygen (most likely), or poor racking technique, or poor sanitization, that beer was ass. Dumped it. It was only 2 gallons, and I still had 10G of what I hoped would be good beer so it was bonus beer anyway.
I diluted the 7% beer with water I had boiled and cooled. I added no salts to the dilution water. I racked the diluted beer into a keg, then added priming sugar for the 5 gallons of beer - based on recommendations here. I think this saved the beer. It turned out great-ish. I knew I had over-boiled the 60 minute hop addition by at least 15 minutes so the base bitterness was not as pleasant as I wanted. But the beer flavor, hop flavor, head retention (mostly), and aroma were good enough for me - good enough for the excess bitterness. The color is about what you'd expect for a well done 2 Hearted homage, although I do still have a little haze. I'm convinced that the priming sugar and yeasties gobbling up the O2 that was induced in all of these shenanigans and left the beer as good as it could possibly be. It is not perfect by any means but given where it started, I can not complain at all. My buddy had nick-named my 2H homage 'Octovalved' in honor of the four valves in a heart times two. I cheekily call this beer 'Septovalved'. Damn I'm clever. Just ask me.
The undiluted 6.8% ended up great - except for the aforementioned excess bitterness from the longer hop boil. The head retention on this one is even nicer than the diluted beer, which doesn't surprise me.
I don't know what the final ABV of the diluted beer is. I know I should check. It just hasn't made it high enough on my To Do list. But I know that it is lower than the 6.8%. I mean duh. It is nice to have something with a little less punch but still tasty and hoppy. I like to have 2-3 full pints on a Friday and Saturday and Sunday night without being completely toasted. Which is why I wanted to dilute the bigger beer. I'm not going for a true clone of 2H, just something that tastes as good as that but fits my other wants. Long and short of this for me is that I learned a little bit more about the dilution process, and I learned that I'm getting closer to what I'm going for with this beer. I do truly appreciate the advice and comments you've left. They all poured into my tiny little brain and filtered through my gray matter to get me where I ended up which I consider a success.
