Few Brewing Mistakes - Beer is Great, but What Effect Would They Have

[Jewrican]

I brewed Reindeer fuel ( https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f68/reindeer-fuel-stout-75249 ) and tried to go against my knowledge and used Beersmith's mash temps, sparge amounts, and temps. The mash came up very close and i was shooting for 155 and after the hour was sitting right at 154.

My sparge temps and amount i think were wrong. It told me to sparge at 165 and the amount was quite a bit lower than I would have sparged with based on my one and only other AG brew and what i read while learning how to AG efficiently.

The issue is that in the end, I ended up short of the 5 gallons. In Beersmith's brew worksheet it said to top off to 5 gallons... something else i knew better than to do. But I did because i was curious on how accurate the brew sheet was.

I took my gravity right before pitching (maybe i should have before topping off ) and it was 1.050. I probably added about 2 quarts of water to the fermenter as a "top off"

1. What would my gravity have been if I would not have added 2 quarts of water to my fermenter?
2. What effect will this have on the finished product? Im not worried about ruining it, just want to know what effect it has other than ABV.


What effect would that have had on my gravity. how could I calculate what it would have been without that additional 2 quarts of water? Just curious how well I did on the rest of the brew as 1.050 looks terrible LOL.

I have yet to add the coffee and the lactose. My OG was 1.050 and my current is 1.024. It has been about a week and a half since I brewed. I just tried to rouse the yeast to make sure that it has not crapped out too early on me but most likely it is done as the FG in beersmith said 1.022.

This beer tastes fantastic! I have yet to brew a beer that i was in love with just during sampling.

So based on the current OG and FG it is a weak beer. It is only like 3.4 percent which is obviously becuase of my low OG. What other effects will this OG have on this beer? I assume it may be thinner than it would have otherwise been? is that true?

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

If you're using a carboy then IME it's better to take the hydro sample before topping off. It can be difficult to get the top off water well mixed. So you're gravity sample may not have been accurate.

Nothing wrong with topping off as long as the top-off water is sanitary.

It's easy to do the calculation though. Just multiply the measured gravity by the ratio of before:after wort volume (but convert your gravity to 'points'). So if you measured 1.050 that's 50 points, times 4.5 gal divided by 5 gal.
50 * 4.5/5 = 45 points so 1.045. You can do a similar calculation with the pre-boil gravity to predict your post-boil gravity. One benefit of doing this is so that you can correct a missed target OG during the boil by adding some DME (if it's too low) or adding some water and then saving any leftover wort (if it's too high; you'll have extra wort because you added water).

The FG in that recipe is based on an OG of 1.071. So your FG seems quite a bit too high (but that's assuming your gravity sample was accurate). But that high FG will make it much fuller tasting so it shouldn't taste 'thin' at all, it just won't have as much alcohol.

HTH. Congrats on a great tasting beer. I think we've all done that: made some mistakes and were a bit worried about the final product, then it turns out to be one of ther best beers you've ever made.

 

[Jewrican]

If you're using a carboy then IME it's better to take the hydro sample before topping off. It can be difficult to get the top off water well mixed. So you're gravity sample may not have been accurate.

yeah i was not thinking obviously Definitely should have done that.

It's easy to do the calculation though. Just multiply the measured gravity by the ratio of before:after wort volume (but convert your gravity to 'points'). So if you measured 1.050 that's 50 points, times 4.5 gal divided by 5 gal.
50 * 4.5/5 = 45 points so 1.045.

okay i am lost. If i added water then the OG of the post boil (before adding water) would be higher than 1.050 as it would be more concentrated wouldnt it?

The FG in that recipe is based on an OG of 1.071. So your FG seems quite a bit too high (but that's assuming your gravity sample was accurate). But that high FG will make it much fuller tasting so it shouldn't taste 'thin' at all, it just won't have as much alcohol.

the only thing that bums me out about that is that i am supposed to add lactose to this recipe. Right now it is at the finishing gravity post lactose ....

which by the way brings up a whole other question. In beersmith if i add lactose to the recipe it adds like 7 points but only like 2 points to the FG. since it is unfermentable, this makes no sense does it??

I am assuming that i should not add lactose to this recipe unless i can get that FG to drop by rousing the yeast correct?

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

okay i am lost. If i added water then the OG of the post boil (before adding water) would be higher than 1.050 as it would be more concentrated wouldnt it?

Not sure I understand your question but if you add water you are diluting it so the gravity should go down. When you boil off water then you are effectively 'subtracting water' and the gravity goes up.

It's difficult to say what to do with the lactose since you're not really sure about the OG. But it still appears that your OG was lower than 1.071 so I say if it tastes good then you prob don't need the lactose.

 

[Jewrican]

in your example you stated that the gravity would be 1.045 which is lower than the 1.050 that i read after adding the water.

So in short. After adding 2 quarts of water (post boil) i ended up with 1.050. what would it have been before adding the additional water. It would have to be higher than 1.050.

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

You're right, I misread the question. But the calculation is basically the same...just invert the volumes. So instead of 50* 4.5/5 it would be...

 

[Jewrican]

so that would be 50* (5/4.5) which equals 55.5555 - so that means that the wort was still only a 1.055 correct?

damn .... i sucked... stupid beersmith LOL. Knew i should have used my own calculations ha ha

 

[SpanishCastleAle]

Yup, but you could round up to get 1.056. And then, if you didn't shake the carboy REALLY well before taking the sample, maybe add a couple of points to get in the 1.058 ballpark. At least it's a really tasty beer...could be worse!

Sorry for the mistake earlier.

 

[Jewrican]

no problem. thanks a ton.

So, other than the beer having a lower gravity / less alcohol what else would a lower OG bring? Would the beer be thinner?

 

[weirdboy]

Did you already add the lactose? That could account for at least some of the difference in gravity.

 

[Jewrican]

i wish

no the lactose has not yet been added. Fermentation could still be going on ... not 100% sure that it is complete yet. Also, it was a little chilly over the last few days and the yeast may have crapped out. I am going to pick up an aquarium heater for my water bath and get that temp up a little and try to rouse the yeast.