First all grain - HELP!

[sturner924]

So I undershot my mash volume and ended up with 3 gallons of an absurdly hoppy wort in the fermenter.

My recipe was a pale/Citra smash. 8oz of Citra in about 2.5-3 gallons of wort.
The wort is hoppy to the point where my throat wants to close up. Should I pitch the yeast anyway? Add water? Will the hops mellow out over time?
The wort is at 1.062.


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[chickypad]

What was your target OG? With that many hops I would imagine you were thinking IPA range, in which case I don't think you want to water the gravity down. What was the whole recipe?

 

[RonPopeil]

depends on your OG. if your gravity is way high then you can add two gallons of boiled water and the batch will correct itself.

if your OG is not super high then you will want to cut it with boiled water anyway and then add some DME.

figure out your gravity first. if it's way high then you have a simple fix. if it's not super high and your extraction was poor then cut it with 2 gals of boiled water with DME added to correct your gravity.

 

[JordanKnudson]

Whoa, tons of hops for that volume. I love it!

First off, yes, hop flavor/aroma fade over time (although the bittering won't fade so much as it will just change), so one strategy would be to just condition it for a long time.

However, having invested half a pound of hops in this brew, I don't think you want to let them fade out and waste the opportunity. Since your OG is 1.062, my advice is to add some boiled DME to get the malt backbone nice and strong, then feed it some dextrose to bump up the ABV and create a big west coast imperial IPA.

 

[novahokie09]

8 oz is a lot for three gallons, but when did you add them? Utilization also is a function of time, so you might be okay. Also, fermentation will reduce the bitterness.

I would definitely ferment this. I don't recommend diluting with water. In fact, I don't recommend diluting at all. Though, if you were going to dilute, definitely go the DME route to obtain, at a minimum, the same OG. If after fermentation you're not satisfied, you can always blend.

Whatever you do, be sure to account for proper pitching rate for the actual volume/OG.

 

[DoWBrewer]

I think BeerSmith is worth the $18 just for getting your mash volumes right. That is not to say it will solve every issue, but it takes a lot of guess work out of it.

 

[PastorofMuppets]

I think you got exactly what you wanted to brew.
8 oz of hops in 3 gallons is going to yield that level of hoppiness.

seriously buy beersmith. its worth its weight in gold but computer bytes weigh very little so dont expect much gold.

 

[Travestian]

Beersmith is incredible for the value. I use it extensively creating each and every recipe. I've even used it for other people's recipes.

That said another alternative that I use for calculating sparge and mash volumes is this: http://www.brew365.com/mash_sparge_water_calculator.php