I screwed up my first homebrew added too much water

[musclenut]

Well I screwed up my first homebrew. It was a pumkin ale. Everything I read about making beer said not to worry have a homebrew. Well I think I had too many. I put my beer in the fermenter about 3:00 am Sun. I put in about 1 to 1 1/2 gallons too much water, and I forgot to airate it before pouring it in the fermenter. It's burping 3 to 4 bubbles a minute right now. Back to my original question. I know too much water isn't the end of the world, less intense flavor, poor head retention but is there any thing I can add to my 2nd fermentation to bring it back up too good drinkablity? I don't have a clue what my og was. I'm learning everythink not to do for my next batch. Thanks for the help!
5 gallon batch
1/2lb crystal 60L
1/4lb chocolate
6.6lbs light malt extract
1lb bag of wheat dme
2 huge butternut squash
3 cinnamon sticks ground
1/8oz all spice
1/8oz nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
yeast dry safale -04

 

[Grumpybumpy]

what is your total volume now? We could help ya find out what your OG should have been with the extra water. I'd still say RDWHAHB, I'm sure it'll be great

 

[weirdboy]

Just take it as a learning experience and let it finish as-is.

My guess is you probably didn't do anything that bad anyway.

There's butternut squash in it? That should be interesting...

 

[Brew_4iT]

Their are some variables, but you probably have about 2-2.5% abv decrease with an extra gallon to a gallon and a half of water. How long has it been fermenting for, take a gravity sample if it hasn't been too long. To be safe add a pound of light DME, or you can do sugar. But I would do only half a pound at the most or it might change the characteristics too much from your original recipe.

edit* Oh since sunday... well the gravity reading probably wouldn't help much at this point.

 

[musclenut]

I didn't have the forsight to put gallon marks on my fermenter before I started. It's and old glass milk perk tank out of a milk parlor. I bought it off a farmer for $5. It probably holds 7-8 gallons. The receipe says 1.048-1.014og and 1.011-1.014fg. I just now finally figured out how to read my hydrometer that's floating in my tank. Thank god for google.
It was just below the 5 mark when I when I poured the yeast in. So that should be 1.047-1.049 I think. Now it's at the 2 mark 1.02. Hope this helps.

 

[ChandlerBang]

I didn't have the forsight to put gallon marks on my fermenter before I started. It's and old glass milk perk tank out of a milk parlor. I bought it off a farmer for $5. It probably holds 7-8 gallons. The receipe says 1.048-1.014og and 1.011-1.014fg. I just now finally figured out how to read my hydrometer that's floating in my tank. Thank god for google.
It was just below the 5 mark when I when I poured the yeast in. So that should be 1.047-1.049 I think. Now it's at the 2 mark 1.02. Hope this helps.

Did you fill it up all the way to 7 or 8 gallons? What do you estimate the actual volume to be in the tank right now?

Is this a typo? 1.048-1.014og... Is that supposed to be 1.048-1.041?

Google is awesome.

If your OG was 1.047-1.049 and the recipe says target OG of 1.048 then I'd say you nailed it.

 

[ChandlerBang]

And one other thing. Leave this sucker in the tank for a while. LOTS of guys on here regularly do a month long primary. Some do even longer. And I'm talking about normal gravity beers. The best thing you can do for your beer is to leave it in the primary at a steady temp for three week or more.
I don't even look at the beer (except for the occasional hug) until at least a month, usually more like six weeks.

 

[musclenut]

Did you fill it up all the way to 7 or 8 gallons? What do you estimate the actual volume to be in the tank right now?

Is this a typo? 1.048-1.014og... Is that supposed to be 1.048-1.041?

Google is awesome.

If your OG was 1.047-1.049 and the recipe says target OG of 1.048 then I'd say you nailed it.

yea, It's a typo should read 1.048- 1.041. I put in all together. 6 gallons of water plus ingredients minus boil evaporation.

 

[JonM]

Oh, and be EXTREMELY careful when fishing that hydrometer out of there. They're made of really thin glass and break easily. There are plenty of stories on HBT about people breaking their hydro in the wort and having to dump the batch.

(Sure, there's a debate about whether broken glass calls for dumping, but, in any event, it's a headache you don't need.)

 

[rico567]

And one other thing. Leave this sucker in the tank for a while. LOTS of guys on here regularly do a month long primary. Some do even longer. And I'm talking about normal gravity beers. The best thing you can do for your beer is to leave it in the primary at a steady temp for three week or more.
I don't even look at the beer (except for the occasional hug) until at least a month, usually more like six weeks.

THIS. Greatest thing to simplify my brewing since the autosiphon.

 

[birvine]

Another option for you:

You should leave this batch for a few weeks in the primary. In the meantime, start another batch that could be a little heavier (I do not mean overly so) and leave it in the primary for 3-4 weeks. When it's time to drink, blend the two.

Caveat: Strive for the two to stand on their own; then, if the first one it too weak, blending just might be what it needs to make best use of the batch.

Just an idea.

Brent

 

[william_shakes_beer]

To the OP: if you added too much top off water, you made LIGHT BEER. I believe that's how the commercial brewers do it (and you thought "great taste less filling" required hours of lab rats in white coats hunched over test tubes)

 

[timdsmith72]

yea, It's a typo should read 1.048- 1.041. I put in all together. 6 gallons of water plus ingredients minus boil evaporation.

6 gallons Doesn't really sound like too much water to me. Maybe half a gallon too much. If that. You'll be fine.

 

[musclenut]

I forgot about adding points for the temp to my og It was more like 1.051 My current gravity is more like. 1.022 Thanks for all the help! I'll eventually figure out how to read gravity.

 

[Zixxer10R]

I forgot about adding points for the temp to my og It was more like 1.051 My current gravity is more like. 1.022 Thanks for all the help! I'll eventually figure out how to read gravity.

Honestly, it doesn't sound like you're too far off from what the exact amount of water would have yielded anyways.

RDWHAHB!

 

[musclenut]

I'm starting to feel better about my first batch.

 

[ChandlerBang]

yea, It's a typo should read 1.048- 1.041. I put in all together. 6 gallons of water plus ingredients minus boil evaporation.

If you boiled for an hour you probably lost at least a half gallon.

THIS. Greatest thing to simplify my brewing since the autosiphon.

Mine cracked after like the tenth use. I am pretty pissed.

I forgot about adding points for the temp to my og It was more like 1.051 My current gravity is more like. 1.022 Thanks for all the help! I'll eventually figure out how to read gravity.

If that is correct, then it'll be fine. I think you added just the right amount of too much water.

 

[musclenut]

For this batch of beer I'm following the directions of my receipe. So I transfered the beer to the secondary tonight. The gravity hadn't changed in a few days either. It was staying on 1.016. I ended up with 6 gallons in my secondary. So I probably put in about 1 1/2 gallon too much water. I tasted the beer, it was very hoppy and tasted a bit like a lite IPA. The Homebrew store fella had me put in 3 times as much hopps as the recipe called for. It didn't have any off flavors though. I'm thinking about doing what one guy sugested and add a pound of dry malt extract and maybe a little more cinnamon and nutmeg. Would it hurt if I poured in a can of pumpkin?

 

[Zixxer10R]

Why did he have you triple the hop quantity?

 

[musclenut]

Why did he have you triple the hop quantity?

I think he had another recipe on his mind when he was gathering supplies.

 

[Kaanan]

I though I've screwed up every brew I've made so far, but each one is tastier than the last.