Yesterday I brewed my first batch of all grain. It was the speckled hefer (spotted cow clone) from northern brewery.
Most of it went according to plan unfortunately I missed my target gravity by quite a bit. Target was 1.042 and I hit 1.032. Pretty sure this is because I over estimated the grain absorption and ended up with just under 6 gallons after my boil and it was supposed to be a 5 gallon batch. I've already pitched the yeast, but I was wondering if it would be reasonable to siphon off a gallon and boil it down to a quart to get the target gravity up? I'm okay with waiting for awhile longer for it to fully ferment, or I could pitch more yeast? What would you gentlemen and gentlewomen recommend? I just don't want to end up with a watered down tasting beer. After all, that's why I decided to home brew lol.
Also, I woke up this morning and the airlock had shot off. I resanitized it and shoved it back in. I have no idea how long it was out so should I be worried about bacterial contamination or wild yeast? It was less than five hours I'm sure, if it matters.
Thanks for any help you can provide a newbie.
-Lulzman
Most of it went according to plan unfortunately I missed my target gravity by quite a bit. Target was 1.042 and I hit 1.032. Pretty sure this is because I over estimated the grain absorption and ended up with just under 6 gallons after my boil and it was supposed to be a 5 gallon batch. I've already pitched the yeast, but I was wondering if it would be reasonable to siphon off a gallon and boil it down to a quart to get the target gravity up? I'm okay with waiting for awhile longer for it to fully ferment, or I could pitch more yeast? What would you gentlemen and gentlewomen recommend? I just don't want to end up with a watered down tasting beer. After all, that's why I decided to home brew lol.
Also, I woke up this morning and the airlock had shot off. I resanitized it and shoved it back in. I have no idea how long it was out so should I be worried about bacterial contamination or wild yeast? It was less than five hours I'm sure, if it matters.
Thanks for any help you can provide a newbie.
-Lulzman