Fell asleep on couch, boil went 6 hours

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Cheektronic

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On a scale from 1 to full-on idiot, I would say this one scored pretty high.

I fell asleep yesterday on the couch, and my 6.5 gallon boil reduced down to 1-2 gallons before I woke up. Since it was 1:30 AM, I turned off the burner, put the lid on the pot, and went to bed. Its still sitting covered on my porch. Anyone think it might still be ok? i might just throw some yeast in it and see how it turns out. It was a vienna smash beer with 2 lbs of the vienna toasted in the oven

I FWH'd 1.5 oz of EKG. Depending on the gravity, could this make an ok BW or has it probably soured beyond repair? I realize I need to go home and taste it, but I'm curious if anyone else had a similar experience...
 
I wonder if a hydrometer will even sink into something like that to get a measurement!
 
It will probably be a bit dark and have little or no hop flavor/aroma. There is no need to worry about souring, since you covered it when it was hot.

Add water up to 5.5 gallons, heat to a boil and put in new flavor/aroma hops if you have them, same timing as usual. Otherwise, boil for 5 minutes, cool and pitch. Enjoy your Bitter.
 
You also may be on to something new and exciting. Think of Dogfish Head and some of the thing they come up with. Run with it and if it comes out well, give it a name, then try and duplicate it.
 
An old ale maybe? I bet you've already got some good kettle caramelization.
 
Beer-lord said:
You also may be on to something new and disgusting. Think of Dogfish Head and some of the thing they come up with.

Fixed ;)

I would water it back up to your desired finish volume, and then boil and carry on with late addition hops if you had plans for any. The kettle carmelization probably will add some nice body and flavor.
 
I'm pretty sure I read in Farmhouse Ales that boils this long or longer used to be fairly standard. I believe that was a fairly low boil, but still...I'm sure it'll be fine as long as you get to your volume and go with the late addition hops as others have said. Maybe shoot for something with a slightly more rustic character than originally planned? Whatever, your call! :mug:
 
You develop melanoidins and caramelized sugars with longer boils. Even if you add water to bring back the correct volume, it will probably be very hard to ferment out. It will also probably taste a bit like beef broth. However, I am interested to hear what it does eventually taste like, and how well it fermented out.

I did a 1.120 barleywine in january with a 4 hour boil. Went from 9.5 gallons to 5.5 gallons. It was hard to ferment out and stuck at 1.042. Not bad, but definitely on the sweet side.
 
I'd add water to 5.25 gallons and heat it back up to a boil for a few minutes to mix it all up and get the caramelized sugars to mix in. Then cool it and pitch the yeast as normal. You got nothing to lose. A late hop addition might be nice.
 
Once that wort chilled down to around 100, it would have been ripe for all kinds of beasties to get in there... wild yeast, bacteria. I'm thinking that if you just pitch at this point, you're going to end up with a sour. Probably not what you want.

I'd consider diluting it down to the gravity you were shooting for and then bringing it back up boiling for 15 min or so.You could get it back to boil add water to dilute it back down to where you want it to and then chill and pitch. It might have messed up the hop utilization something fierce and it'll probably have lots of caramel notes.

Good luck. let us know what you do with it.
 
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