out of order

[wntbtrbeer]

ok, today I brewed the "Bourbon Barrel Porter" from Northern Home Brews and I added the 6.3#'s of Dark malt extract at the same time as the 2#'s of Wheat Malt DME (the beginning of the boil) instead of the last 15 minutes of the boil as the directions said( my mistake). I rehydrated and pitched additional dry yeast to account for the higher gravity of the beer. Fermentation began within three hours. Question is this: did I screw up badly or is this gonna work out ok? What should I expect from the finished beer? Thanks for the feedback

 

[btbnl]

When you add the extract won't change the gravity - late addition is only to minimize caramelization.

It'll be fine.

 

[joshesmusica]

as mentioned above, the timing with extracts is about caramelization and/or color of the beer. when i do all extract i add about 25-30% in the beginning, the rest at flameout for all my lighter colored beers. for my dark colored beers i just add it all at the beginning. just make sure you're stirring really good to ensure that none of the extract is being burned to the bottom of the kettle.
but i also put together all of my recipes with beersmith. so in your case, you should be doing what the instructions on the kit say as far as timing during the boil. when you add the extract DOES affect hop utilization. so you are just going to have a less bitter beer than they expected you to.

but since you've now added way too much yeast (overpitching isn't a bad thing, lots of people do it, but it just means you need to pay close attention to temps. usually those that overpitch have good control of that aspect), and fermentation started off fairly quickly, make sure you're really controlling your temps. if this is a big beer, temps will easily get out of hand, and then you'll get fusel alcohols (look those up), which will make you fairly dissatisfied with your final product because that off-flavor doesn't condition out.

 

[wntbtrbeer]

ok so far so good then, fermentation took off overnight and I had to switch to a blow off tube instead of the airlock, np. Time to wait and see I guess, thanks for input!

 

[joshesmusica]

again, just check your temps. do you have temp control capacity? if not what's your ambient? you want your fermenting temp to be around 65F or so. which means your ambient needs to be around 60F or so for the first few days.

 

[wntbtrbeer]

my room temp was dropped to 60, the fermomenter had the carboy temp at about 69. The carboy temp has since dropped to 63 +/-. I raised the room temp back up to 66. Carboy temp settled at about 64. I did extract a little with a wine thief (heavily sanitized) and tasted. Very sweet but my gravity dropped from 1.068 to about 1.030. I replaced the blow off tube with an airlock (again heavily sanitized) and all is quiet now. Thanks again for the feedback, this one was pretty exciting!

 

[jakis]

Your welcome