Please watch your step - I'm dripping n00b all over the place.
I'm in the midst of my first solo brewing endeavor, and it's been quite...interesting.
My primary issue started about 10 minutes into the boil, when I had a boilover. Thank god my wife wasn't home, or I'd be posting from the hospital. I think I lost around 15% of my volume. I added some purified water and continued with the hopping schedule. Without thinking, I topped the wort off to 5 gallons when I was in the cooling phase. I also, in my haste to clean up, forgot to take a gravity reading.
It's now 5 days in the primary, and it's at 1.02. This seems way low for this stage in the process (at least according to the original recipe I was using), which I'm assuming is due in large part to the lost (non-)fermentable sugars in the boiling incident. I realize it's not going to be an "imperial" any more, but is this going to be too weak to be worth drinking?
It's still quite sweet, though the airlock has stopped bubbling (I had issues with a terrifyingly vigorous fermentation that blew the lid off the bucket three times, but that's another story). Does this mean the yeast are mostly done doing their thing, and that most of the sweetness is simply the stuff they couldn't consume?
The ProMash recipe I worked up at my local store indicated a final gravity of 1.082. I plugged the ingredients into iBrewMaster, and it indicated a much lower final gravity (1.021). Any idea why the significant difference?
Thanks in advance for your patience and advice
Ingredients are as follows:
Grains & Adjuncts
Amount Percentage Name Time Gravity
1.00 lbs 8.85 % Barley, Flaked 45 mins (steep) 1.032
1.00 lbs 8.85 % Oats, Flaked 45 mins (steep) 1.037
0.50 lbs 4.42 % Barley, Raw 45 mins (steep) 1.028
0.50 lbs 4.42 % Chocolate Malt 60 mins 1.028
5.00 lbs 44.25 % Briess Dark DME 60 mins 1.043
3.30 lbs 29.20 % Briess Amber LME 60 mins 1.036
Hops
Amount IBU's Name Time AA %
1.50 ozs 20.17 Northern Brewer 45 mins 8.50
0.50 ozs 2.66 Northern Brewer 10 mins 8.50
Yeasts
Amount Name Laboratory / ID
1.00 pkg Irish Ale Wyeast Labs 1084
Additions
Amount Name Time Stage
1.00 tsp Irish Moss 12 mins Boil