Ok, I've messed up my beer big time - can anyone help me make sense of this?

[JonBrew]

Apologies in advance for the length of this post.

I brewed a weizenbock style beer at the end of June but when I visited my LHBS they were totally out of wheat malt. In it's place the guy recommended Crystal Wheat. It is obviously a much darker malt but that wasnt really an issue seeing as i was brewing a weizenbock anyway. I was, however, concerned about the level of fermentables i could extract from this kind of malt. The guy at the LHBS assured me it would be fine and would produce a rich and full bodied beer. I am relatively new to brewing and, in the moment, i bowed to his superioir knowledge and took the crystal wheat.

I went ahead with my brew with the crystal wheat making up over 50% of my grain bill.

My mash efficiency was slightly lower than anticipated so i added some DME to the boil to help with this. the starting gravity was 1056 with 10L wort going into the FV. I used Danstar Munich Wheat yeast which too off within the 24 hours but stopped after about 72 hours. I check and gravity reading was 1028. i tried everything to get this beer going again, i.e. rousing the yeast, raising temp etc, but nothing worked.

I then came on here and it was quickly suggested that my level of fermentable sugars would have been greatly affected by the crystal wheat.

not wanting to ditch the beer, i set about diluting the wort and added A LOT of sugar in order to both thin it down a bit (so it would be less clawing) and also increase the ABV. i added 1kg of brewing sugar (dextrose) and 1kg of brown sugar (I know!) along with 4L of water which i boiled with hops to make a hop tea - I did this to try it keep the IBU's in check.

at the same time i pitched new yeast and some yeast nutrient. again, i know! i guess i thought the yeast would need a bit of help to get back going in the alcoholic enviroment.

anyway, the fermentation took off like a rocket and stank to high heaven - like really stank (of sulpher etc). after a few days i took another gravity reading and could hardly believe my eyes as it read 1.001. (WTF?!) i had a taste at this stage and it wasnt tasting the best. some harsh alcohol burn and a bit sour.

there is no doubt that i have royaly screwed this brew and any critisism, constructive or otherwise, from the forum will be accepted. however, i really want to understand how the hell it ended up with such a low gravity reading. and before you ask i have checked and double checked this with 2 different hydrometers. any ideas?

also, i am currently debating with myself whether or not to dump this beer. again, any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated, i.e. is the beer likely to improve with significant aging?

many thanks for taking the time to read this sorry tale.

 

[Braufessor]

When I see a gravity that low, I tend to think infection.

Personally, I think there is Zero chance this beer ends up good - sorry. I would dump it..... but that is me. I am not into salvaging marginal-bad beer in the hopes that it can be made "drinakble."

In fairness - you did not ruin your beer. The guy at your LHBS ruined your beer. Suggesting that you just use crystal wheat as a basemalt seems somewhere between ignorant and deceptive to me. I would be finding a new LHBS...... and if there isn't one, I would start shopping on line. I assume that you used something like the following (which recommends "up to 10%" of grain bill.
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shop/caramel/fawcett-crystal-wheat-by-the-pound/

Sorry that your beer did not turn out - I have been there too. It sucks. Personally, I generally cut my loses and refocus on turning out a new beer that can be great.

 

[peterj]

I went ahead with my brew with the crystal wheat making up over 50% of my grain bill.

Had you already brewed the beer before you found out that it was 50% crystal malt? If not, you shouldn't have even wasted the time brewing it. You should have gone and gotten your money back from the LHBS, then gone to a competent LHBS and gotten the correct grain bill. Even if you had already brewed it, I would have still gone back and gotten a refund.

My mash efficiency was slightly lower than anticipated so i added some DME to the boil to help with this. the starting gravity was 1056 with 10L wort going into the FV. I used Danstar Munich Wheat yeast which too off within the 24 hours but stopped after about 72 hours. I check and gravity reading was 1028. i tried everything to get this beer going again, i.e. rousing the yeast, raising temp etc, but nothing worked.

1.028 was likely the FG because of the huge proportion of unfermentable sugars.

not wanting to ditch the beer, i set about diluting the wort and added A LOT of sugar in order to both thin it down a bit (so it would be less clawing) and also increase the ABV. i added 1kg of brewing sugar (dextrose) and 1kg of brown sugar (I know!) along with 4L of water which i boiled with hops to make a hop tea - I did this to try it keep the IBU's in check.

at the same time i pitched new yeast and some yeast nutrient. again, i know! i guess i thought the yeast would need a bit of help to get back going in the alcoholic enviroment.

anyway, the fermentation took off like a rocket and stank to high heaven - like really stank (of sulpher etc). after a few days i took another gravity reading and could hardly believe my eyes as it read 1.001. (WTF?!) i had a taste at this stage and it wasnt tasting the best. some harsh alcohol burn and a bit sour.

there is no doubt that i have royaly screwed this brew and any critisism, constructive or otherwise, from the forum will be accepted. however, i really want to understand how the hell it ended up with such a low gravity reading. and before you ask i have checked and double checked this with 2 different hydrometers. any ideas?

also, i am currently debating with myself whether or not to dump this beer. again, any thoughts on this subject would be appreciated, i.e. is the beer likely to improve with significant aging?

many thanks for taking the time to read this sorry tale.

Holy crap, 2 kg of sugar into 14L of beer??? Why?!?! You probably added about 55 gravity points with all that sugar!! Adding sugar to a beer after you've already brewed it is not a good way to thin it out. It's ok to use sugar to thin out a beer if you replace some of the grain in the recipe with sugar. In your case, all of the residual sugars that made the FG 1.028 are still in there but now there is also a BUNCH of alcohol in there as well. Since alcohol is thinner than water it technically thinned out your beer, but it doesn't do anything for the cloying, sweet, unfermentable sugars that are still in there. That's why it's at 1.001.

Also, that much fermented sugar is probably going to taste pretty terrible. Probably very cidery with a harsh alcohol bite (because it's probably around 12% alcohol now).

I wouldn't waste any more time on this brew if I were you. I would go get a refund and start planning your next brew. Hopefully they'll give you the right grains this time!

 

[JonBrew]

thanks to both for your input and for helping me make the difficult decision to dump this steaming pile of shi....

In your case, all of the residual sugars that made the FG 1.028 are still in there but now there is also a BUNCH of alcohol in there as well. Since alcohol is thinner than water it technically thinned out your beer, but it doesn't do anything for the cloying, sweet, unfermentable sugars that are still in there. That's why it's at 1.001.

^^^ this is pretty much what i thought had happened.

alternatively, if this has been down to an infection, what would be the tell tale signs? i am slightly concerned because i completed another brew around the same time which i thought turned out fine. however, after puting some of it in a 5L mini keg, i came home a few days later to find out the keg had buckled causing the tap to leak and i lost the beer (apart from some that i bottled). i dont think i overprimed(?!). could this indicate wild yeast? is so, how will i know? bottle bombs/gushers?

 

[Braufessor]

Holy crap, 2 kg of sugar into 14L of beer??? Why?!?! You probably added about 55 gravity points with all that sugar!! Adding sugar to a beer after you've already brewed it is not a good way to thin it out. It's ok to use sugar to thin out a beer if you replace some of the grain in the recipe with sugar. In your case, all of the residual sugars that made the FG 1.028 are still in there but now there is also a BUNCH of alcohol in there as well. Since alcohol is thinner than water it technically thinned out your beer, but it doesn't do anything for the cloying, sweet, unfermentable sugars that are still in there. That's why it's at 1.001.

Also, that much fermented sugar is probably going to taste pretty terrible. Probably very cidery with a harsh alcohol bite (because it's probably around 12% alcohol now).

I think peterj gave the best explanation here..... I had not considered just how much sugar that was. This is probably a likely cause of the 1.001.

In general, in a "normal beer" - it is pretty hard to ferment that low without bacteria or wild yeast of some sort. But, in this case - I think he is correct.

 

[Braufessor]

infection...... flavor/smell mainly. Beer that goes in clear but gets really cloudy (not hazy) over time in bottle or keg. Gushers can be a sign - but that can be overpriming or bottling too soon too.