Lost A Gallon of Wort

[Pancoastbrewing]

Long story short, I turned my back for two minutes and the tube jumped out of my kettle and about a gallon of pre sparge wort went literally down the drain. Had about 2.5 gallons of wort pre sparge for a 5 gallon brew. Lost almost half. Ran my 4.25 gal of sparge water as normal and added about a gallon of water to get me back up to within reason accounting for the boil off losses.

My question is, as I'm waiting for the hot break at this moment, is this even worth continuing on with the brew or should I just end it now considering I lost half my first wort run off? How f-ed up is the beer going to be having lost that many sugars? I would rather not go through fermentation, kegging, etc if it's going to be weak as I suspect it to be,. Sorry for the agitated tone of the post, but I'm quite angry. I even nailed my mash temp perfectly for like the first time ever! Ugh!

 

[schatzke]

how low is the gravity?
you can add some dme to up the gravity if you have some on hand.
personally I would roll with it, what is the beer style you are brewing?

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

how low is the gravity?
you can add some dme to up the gravity if you have some on hand.
personally I would roll with it, what is the beer style you are brewing?

I don't usually take a pre boil gravity reading (I know I know)....the OG was supposed to be 1.048 and I was making an American Pale.

 

[jurgenph]

call it a session-something something

or boil it longer; watch your hops here! add the extra time to the additions
you'll end up with less beer, but you'll get closer to your expected OG


J.

 

[kh54s10]

how low is the gravity?
you can add some dme to up the gravity if you have some on hand.
personally I would roll with it, what is the beer style you are brewing?

Agreed, take a gravity reading now to see how bad it is. If you don't have DME and can't get any, I would proceed if you have 1.030 or above. If it is as low as 1.030 you will have a session beer. Low in alcohol so you can enjoy more of them. If lower than that it is your decision whether or no to see if it is anything you might want to drink.

If it is higher you might have a good beer, just not what you started out making.

 

[schatzke]

Check your gravity. If it's extremely low you may not want to continue. Or like jurgenph said boil it longer to up the gravity. Volume will be less but there are a couple of options besides dumping.

 

[stz]

That sucks. Usually the first third of the runnings is twice the gravity of the next two. This method of estimation is rather crude, so if you've a method of measuring gravity then see what you got going into the boil and see if you can salvage a beer from it. Not that anybody here would ever resort to such underhand techniques, but sometimes it is helpful to keep a few bags of DME or sugar around.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

I do have a bag of DME that I was going to use as a starter for a beer I never got around to making. So what's the process if I want to add some? Take a gravity reading after I chill to pitching temp and see what I have before adding the dme?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

You either keep on keepin on knowing in the end you'll still have beer.

Or you add the DME during boil, and take a gravity reading to know if you need to adjust hop rate.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

You either keep on keepin on knowing in the end you'll still have beer.

Or you add the DME during boil, and take a gravity reading to know if you need to adjust hop rate.

I only have about 12 minutes left in the boil

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

well, too late to adjust hops. But you do need to boil whatever DME you add. Even if just for 12 minutes.

I'd want to know gravity before hand, if it were me.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

well, too late to adjust hops. But you do need to boil whatever DME you add. Even if just for 12 minutes.

I'd want to know gravity before hand, if it were me.

Yeah, I'm not skilled enough to get into the extra technical stuff at this point. I've made probably a dozen or so brews and this is the first pretty egregious mistake I've made that might make me what to scratch it before going further. I guess I'll just proceed as intended at this point, take a gravity reading after the wort is chilled and maybe the smarter folks on here can let me know what to expect.

At least this is an Ale so I'll know pretty quickly how bad I messed it up. I usually do lagers and definitely would have dumped it if it weren't an Ale.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

My post boil/whirlpool gravity was 1.043. Not as bad as I was expecting. But I did end up about 1/2 gallon short going into the carboy. I would expect a more bitter beer than what I was intending. Was looking at about 35 IBU assuming 6.5 gal going into kettle. Probably went in a shade or so over 6 in the kettle.

 

[madscientist451]

If you have problems like you describe, pull a sample about 10 minutes before the boil is over, chill it in an ice bath and take a hydrometer reading. You can then add some extract to bring your gravity up and still have a decent beer to drink.
I recently had a similar problem and all I had on hand was Rye LME. The beer came out way better than I expected.

 

[kh54s10]

My post boil/whirlpool gravity was 1.043. Not as bad as I was expecting. But I did end up about 1/2 gallon short going into the carboy. I would expect a more bitter beer than what I was intending. Was looking at about 35 IBU assuming 6.5 gal going into kettle. Probably went in a shade or so over 6 in the kettle.

It sounds like collecting a little less wort in this case was a good thing.
I wouldn't worry to much about the IBUs. I suspect you are not too far off. At least not far enough off that it will make a big difference.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

It sounds like collecting a little less wort in this case was a good thing.
I wouldn't worry to much about the IBUs. I suspect you are not too far off. At least not far enough off that it will make a big difference.

Why would collecting less wort be a good thing? Honest question not sarcastic as it sounds haha

 

[kh54s10]

Why would collecting less wort be a good thing? Honest question not sarcastic as it sounds haha

You started your boil with a little less than you might have if you added more water, so your OG was higher than it might have been.

So by ending up with a little less kept it from being a really weak thin beer.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

You started your boil with a little less than you might have if you added more water, so your OG was higher than it might have been.

So by ending up with a little less kept it from being a really weak thin beer.

Ah, ok, makes sense. The good thing was that I ran about a half gallon or so through the grains in the mash tun almost like a second sparge. 1.043 isn't too bad I guess.

 

[JohnSand]

You can still add extract in the fermenter, just boil, cool and pour it in. Do the math to find out how much to add, don't forget that water increases your volume too. Brewers add plenty of things to fermenting wort: sugar, fruit, spices. You can still adjust your brew.

 

[Pancoastbrewing]

Quick update now that I've just about finished drinking this beer. Hilariously, it's turned out to be one of the finest beers I've ever made. Tastes very similar to the APA style...bitterness is just about where it should be (surprisngly), and it doesn't seem to be too weak. It's almost as if the brewing process went perfectly. Amazing how that worked out.

Wondering how it will turn out if I brew it the same exact way without losing any wort this time?