Noob filled his romps. What should I do now?

[hellbent77]

Hey.

After "brewing" Mr Beer and Munton's no-boil kits for a year, I bought a burner, boil pot, and whatnot. Brewed a BB Kölsch kit and it seemed to go well; bottled it a couple days ago.

Today I brewed a BB Cream Ale kit, thinking "what could go wrong?". Not much did until I was pouring water on the 2.5 gallons of boiled and chilled wort. It was then that two Bass Ales and a momentary lapse of reason made me fill the fermenter to 6 gallons instead of the intended 5 gallons. Crap!

So now, instead of 1.049 - 1.053 OG, I have 1.0395 +/-.

Also, the CF chiller I made works too well and is hard to control with 45F cooling water. The wort is 55F and just sitting to warm up to 68ish before pitching the yeast. Got it sealed up with airlock on it, but who knows what bad things will happen as it warms.... might take a day or ?? to warm up in my 74F first floor.....

So here's my question: Should I just dump this swill and start over? I figure the ABV will be lower than design (maybe 3.5%?). But the taste.... what about the taste?!?! Ach!!

Feel like I wasted an afternoon and $35 bucks worth of kit.

I'd be grateful for any advice.

 

[fatnoah]

Don't dump it yet. There are a couple of things you could do to save it.

Let's start with the temperature. As long as it is sealed you can definitely wait several hours before you pitch the yeast. That isn't going to hurt anything. So don't worry about that. Wait til the temp gets up to where you want it and then pitch.

Ok, now for the OG. On the one hand that OG isn't crazy low. Will it be a little thin tasting? Maybe, but my first beer I ever made was supposed to have an OG = 1.042 and like you I put too much water in and it ended up at like 1.036. It wasn't the best beer I've brewed, but it was fine.

If you are really concerned, you can just take some DME, add it to just a little bit of water to just get it dissolved. Boil for 15 min. And pour that it. That might even bring your temp up faster too.

 

[ChefRex]

You could let it go and you'll still make beer, or you could boil it down to 5 gal but you would probably want to add some more aroma hops in the end

 

[billym99]

IMO, you're already well in to making this beer. I would pitch yeast at a decent temp and let it run its course. Obviously it will not come out the way it was intended but that doesn't mean it'll be terrible beer, could end up being ok.

Again, IMO, I would only ever dump homebrew that I consider undrinkable (infected, total dookie, etc.).

 

[Frige]

I second that run down to you local brew supply store there are 2 in your city and pick up some dme. You could just pour in some honey in a pinch but it makes your beer taste funny. I had some good luck with molasses. Have fun its beer.

 

[C-Rider]

Since the yeast has not been pitched why not putting what your boil kettle willhold and boil it down? That will get rid of the extra water and raise the OG. Of course it might screw up the hops?

 

[hellbent77]

You guys are awesome. Thanks for the tips and encouragement!

I'll just pitch the yeast when it warms and hope for the best. I don't want to waste any more time or propane on this batch.

It will be light but somebody in the family might like it.

Just makes me want to kick my own ass. To screw up such a simple step! Ugh.

 

[hellbent77]

Right! Gotta have fun! I need to lighten up.

Thanks to all for the adjustment!

 

[Yooper]

If the wort is at 55 degrees now, pitch the yeast! That's perfect. I usually try to pitch my yeast at 60ish and then let the beer warm up to 64-65 for fermentation.

If you wait until it warms up to 68 degrees, it'll probably be too warm once fermentation starts! Try to keep the fermentation at 65-68 the whole time, and not let it go above that if at all possible.

 

[hellbent77]

Thanks for the advice, Yooper.

My basement hovers between 64 and 68F this time of year. The soup is at 64 now. I'll pitch and put it down there!