I hope my beer is ok.

[ahaley]

Last night I brewed, I have a thing for late night brewing, maybe it's because I don't have a beard and if it's dark the beer wont notice... But either way! I was making 5 gallons of Julie's peach blonde, and I forgot to cover my pot like I usually do during the boils, and well... There was a lot of lost water... I dropped from 5 gal to about 3.5... I topped it off with tap water, not boiled, but the faucet has a super filter on it, do you guys think I super messed up?
Also if you want the recipe let me know and I'll post it on this thread

 

[tre9er]

Probably be fine if all other sanitation was good. I topped off my first extract batch with tap water and it turned out fine.

 

[twistr25]

Did you hit your OG? Most other posts I've read say unboiled top off water is just fine. As long as you stirred in the new water and got your OG, I'd say you are good to go!

 

[CastleHollow]

As long as your tap water is drinkable to start with, I think you'll be okay.

 

[Yooper]

You don't want to cover your boil pot anyway- so that seems like you did just fine. You may want to consider reducing the flame a bit, as all you need is a rolling boil, for the next batch.

But in general- lid off = good!

I start with 7 gallons in the boil kettle, in order to get 5.5 gallons in the fermenter, so your boil off doesn't seem that extreme anyway. And tap water (assuming you have no chloramines in it, or chlorine) is fine. If you do have issues with your tap water, I'd consider purchasing bottled spring water or reverse osmosis water for topping up.

 

[Shooter]

Yeah, lid should normally stay off during the boil, super critical if you're using a lot pilsner malt.

 

[user 98891]

I try to keep my wort 'just boiling'. If I just open up the flame I can lose 2 gallons an hour easy. If I control my boil to just boiling I usually lose a gallon an hour. I size my system to be 7 gallons at boil, and 5.50 in the fermenter. I leave the last half or so gallon in the kettle to keep the trub out.

 

[homebrewdad]

+1 to don't boil with the lid on - this is a great way to make cooked vegetable beer.

Top off water won't hurt you.

 

[ahaley]

Oh snap I didn't expect so many replies thanks everyone, and the tap water is drinkable, it got mixed in with the wort because I carried the carboy to the garage. Wheew that makes me feel better now, and I missed my og. They ( the kit recipe ) says ~ 1.060 and I got ~ 1.050.
What do you guys think caused me to miss it that much?

 

[jbaysurfer]

We'll need the recipe for that^ question.

If you're doing extract I'd say the cause of your reading it either:

A) You didn't miss your OG, but the top off water and the extract wort were'nt mixed adequately (very very common problem).
or
B) You added too much top off water back into your beer to compensate for the volume loss you had in the boil off. (EX: You thought you needed 1.5 gallons, but you really only needed 1.25 gallons...or you though you only had 5 G in the fermentor, but you really had 5.25 etc..

 

[hepcat]

Experienced brewers on here will probably want to see your whole recipe to answer that.

 

[ahaley]

Alright once I get home from errands I'll post the recipe, and try to give as much detail to my brewing process as well.

I will note, I don't have a beard so this may be the main issue :x

 

[tre9er]

What temp did you take your hydrometer sample? If above 60, it would read low.

 

[ahaley]

What temp did you take your hydrometer sample? If above 60, it would read low.

Really? I didn't know that, and it was ~90* or so, maybe a few degrees higher than 90 but pretty close.

And for the recipe! I got home later than expected, but here it is.

10 oz wheat malt
4 oz 10 crystal malt
4 oz cara-pils
4 oz flaked wheat

Steeped for 30 minutes at ~170*

6 lbs wheat DME

1hr boil

A.A%
3.1%
1 oz crystal hops/leaf at 60min
3/4 oz crystal hops/leaf at 20 minutes, and 1/4 at end of boil.

I have peach extract that I have not added yet as the recipe calls for it in the secondary.
wyeast 1010 liquid

Their og 1.060
Their fg 1.014
ABV 6.0%
size 5 gal
IBU 21

I hope this helps guys, and thanks again!

 

[CastleHollow]

Really? I didn't know that, and it was ~90* or so, maybe a few degrees higher than 90 but pretty close.

A gravity reading of 1.050 at 90 (say 90-92) adjusts to 1.055, so you're not far off. The remaining difference can be a result of the top off water or the total volume of the wort, as others have pointed out. Not significant enough to worry about, so it looks like you're on track with this one.

 

[ahaley]

A gravity reading of 1.050 at 90 (say 90-92) adjusts to 1.055, so you're not far off. The remaining difference can be a result of the top off water or the total volume of the wort, as others have pointed out. Not significant enough to worry about, so it looks like you're on track with this one.

Awesome thanks everyone, and I have my carboy in a hoodie, in a big circular tub, and I just threw in 3 frozen 12 oz water bottles and took a temp, the middle ish of the water is holding at 77* what do you guys estimate the beer inside is at? I dont want to disturb it more than I have today I had to move it and stuff got super splashed around. D:

 

[sweetcell]

Awesome thanks everyone, and I have my carboy in a hoodie, in a big circular tub, and I just threw in 3 frozen 12 oz water bottles and took a temp, the middle ish of the water is holding at 77* what do you guys estimate the beer inside is at?

you'll want cooler it than that. the water will be warmer than the carboy/bucket, and the beer inside will be warmer still. i'd get that temp down to the low 60's, in hopes of keeping the beer at the upper 60's. beer at the center of a vessel can be 10*F higher than at its edges (let alone the water outside the edges) at the peak of fermentation, so chances are your beer is too hot in there.

you should consider putting stick-on LCD thermometer strips (sometimes called aquarium thermometers) to the outside of your fermentation vessel.

 

[ahaley]

you'll want cooler it than that. the water will be warmer than the carboy/bucket, and the beer inside will be warmer still. i'd get that temp down to the low 60's, in hopes of keeping the beer at the upper 60's. beer at the center of a vessel can be 10*F higher than at its edges (let alone the water outside the edges) at the peak of fermentation, so chances are your beer is too hot in there.

you should consider putting stick-on LCD thermometer strips (sometimes called aquarium thermometers) to the outside of your fermentation vessel.

Alright I'll pick some of those up from the store, I haven't had my carboy more than a day yet so I still have some learning to do, but how do you suggest I get it cooler? Throw in more ice/ frozen bottles?

 

[hepcat]

...but how do you suggest I get it cooler? Throw in more ice/ frozen bottles?

Yes. I live in FL and use a swamp cooler, keep the house at ~72*-74*F, keep the swamp cooler/FV in a dark closet in the coolest room in the house, and have had no trouble keeping the swamp cooler water between 60*-65*F. And I've not noticed much temp differential every time I've checked wort temp. And even if I'm gone for a long while, like all day, the swamp cooler water never has gotten above 70*F. Just put alot of frozen bottles in the swamp cooler when you know you're going to be gone a long while or have somebody else change them out while you're away.
Good luck.

 

[twistr25]

Here's a handy link to have at you disposal, Hydrometer Corrections. This is from John Palmer's book. Hydrometers are standardized to 59F, so temperatures on either side require a correction factor. Just read the page at this link and use the table.

 

[ludomonster]

I may be late to the party, but I do partial boils and top off my beer at the end. This last batch, my filter broke and I used unfiltered water. I'm not sweating over it. I'm bottling it this weekend. What you describe is what I do routinely.

I have a beard, though. So, your mileage may vary.

 

[WileECoyote]

Alright I'll pick some of those up from the store, I haven't had my carboy more than a day yet so I still have some learning to do, but how do you suggest I get it cooler? Throw in more ice/ frozen bottles?

Hello, I use 32oz gatorade bottles filled with water then frozen, its taking 2 of them every 2 hrs to keep mine at 62/64ish in my swamp cooler, but then again its 115+ deg here now, I have 9 32oz bottles in the freezer and one 1 gal frozen as a back up, for the heat of the late afternoon when its hard to keep the house cooled down to 85deg.

Good luck and Cheers

 

[ahaley]

I may be late to the party, but I do partial boils and top off my beer at the end. This last batch, my filter broke and I used unfiltered water. I'm not sweating over it. I'm bottling it this weekend. What you describe is what I do routinely.

I have a beard, though. So, your mileage may vary.

See you've already won the race before I've started! But thanks For the info on what you do, I'm still pretty new and I panic of a few things once in a while

 

[ahaley]

Here's a handy link to have at you disposal, Hydrometer Corrections. This is from John Palmer's book. Hydrometers are standardized to 59F, so temperatures on either side require a correction factor. Just read the page at this link and use the table.

Sounds good thanks, I have his how to brew book, but I haven't read in about a month or so... I'll look at your link and the book later today

 

[ahaley]

Hello, I use 32oz gatorade bottles filled with water then frozen, its taking 2 of them every 2 hrs to keep mine at 62/64ish in my swamp cooler, but then again its 115+ deg here now, I have 9 32oz bottles in the freezer and one 1 gal frozen as a back up, for the heat of the late afternoon when its hard to keep the house cooled down to 85deg.

Good luck and Cheers

Dang for 32 oz I'd need a bigger bucket. I can barely fit some 12 oz in there!

 

[ahaley]

This is my current set up.



I just took the temp of the water, and it's 70 so I added all of those ice packs you see there in hopes of cooling it more.
Do you guys have any suggestions on how I can improve this set up?

 

[MotorcycleMatt]

sadly thats how mine looked for my barleywine. I got tired of it and went to a controlled fridge.

 

[tre9er]

Put a fan on it, lower the water level to about half-way up the carboy, make sure the hoodie is soaked, and blow the fan on the top-half of the carboy.

 

[tre9er]

Also, you really only need to be diligent about keeping the temps ultra-low for the first week or so. Primary ferm is done (usually, gravity sample tells all) by then and temp can slowly come back up to say, high 60's or low 70's. I actually prefer fermenting this way.

 

[ahaley]

Thanks for the suggestions, sadly I can't afford the pg&e for another fridge at this point in time.. And the only reason I have the water so high is because I read that the higher the water the more it helps to maintain the temp, and I will look for a small fan to put there.