After about 3 years of partial mash brewing, I decided to upgrade to all grain brewing. My first batch came out perfect (high gravity stout), but I think mostly attributed to beginners luck. My next batch, a 5 gal IPA came out good, but I boiled off too much and had a larger than expect OG, so I ended up topping off after boil.
The batch I made last night was supposed to be a 10 gal milk stout. This was my first 10 gal batch. I did not intend to make that large of a batch, but being an all grain beginner, I totally missed that the recipe had said 10 gal until after I milled all the grain. This forced me to go buy a 60 qt kettle, which I needed anyways. Desperately searching for a preboil volume all over the internet, had me find a consensus on 14 gallons as a good preboil volume for a 10 gal batch. Everywhere was conflicting information on 10% boil-offs/hr or 1 gal boil-offs/hr. So I blindly trusted the 14 gal preboil, sparged to that volume and started the boil. I ended with ~12.7 gal? and 1.050 OG vs 1.060 OG. Being very exhausted, didn't think about and chilled the wort, pitched yeast, etc.
This morning, I am wondering if I totally F'd my beer by not boiling down to close to 10-11 gal. The beer does have 2 lbs of lactose in it overall, which should help with the body, but I am not sure if it will keep it from being too watery. I am thinking of leaving it in the primary for 4 weeks and the secondary for another 4 to try to evaporate as much as possible. Some people say add malt extract to up the gravity? Or should I just bring it back to the kettle and try to boil off 2 gallons? My friend said this will mess up the hop character, although I boiled in with hop bags and already removed those. I would need to make a new starter, however.
Messing up 5 gallons is fine, but 13 gallons is gonna be a long time of drinking piss. Help save my beer!!
The batch I made last night was supposed to be a 10 gal milk stout. This was my first 10 gal batch. I did not intend to make that large of a batch, but being an all grain beginner, I totally missed that the recipe had said 10 gal until after I milled all the grain. This forced me to go buy a 60 qt kettle, which I needed anyways. Desperately searching for a preboil volume all over the internet, had me find a consensus on 14 gallons as a good preboil volume for a 10 gal batch. Everywhere was conflicting information on 10% boil-offs/hr or 1 gal boil-offs/hr. So I blindly trusted the 14 gal preboil, sparged to that volume and started the boil. I ended with ~12.7 gal? and 1.050 OG vs 1.060 OG. Being very exhausted, didn't think about and chilled the wort, pitched yeast, etc.
This morning, I am wondering if I totally F'd my beer by not boiling down to close to 10-11 gal. The beer does have 2 lbs of lactose in it overall, which should help with the body, but I am not sure if it will keep it from being too watery. I am thinking of leaving it in the primary for 4 weeks and the secondary for another 4 to try to evaporate as much as possible. Some people say add malt extract to up the gravity? Or should I just bring it back to the kettle and try to boil off 2 gallons? My friend said this will mess up the hop character, although I boiled in with hop bags and already removed those. I would need to make a new starter, however.
Messing up 5 gallons is fine, but 13 gallons is gonna be a long time of drinking piss. Help save my beer!!
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