So...I accidentally doubled my DME

[snarf7]

Stupid ****ing metric vs imperial in these recipes! I entered the wrong thing in my calculator and wound up doubling the DME in my Irish Red, I put it in the basement to ferment yesterday so I'm not sure there's anything to be done at this point? Is it saveable? Will it end up super sweet? or high alcohol? or both?

 

[d3track]

The likely outcome? Higher alcohol and potentially perceived sweetness. It's not exactly a bitter style, so if you started towards the high end of the bitterness range, you may even be ok.
If I were in your shoes, I'd just let it be, and enjoy a little extra kick when enjoying it with holiday dinner.

Cheers!

 

[MaaZeus]

A little bit of both most likely. If it were light DME the sweetness is not as pronounced but alcohol is going to be higher for sure because you added more fermentable stuff. Does not mean its going to be bad though. As a fan of high ABV beers this may turn out to be a happy accident fingers crossed or it may throw the carefully thought out balance of ingredients out of the whack. Who can say? I am not an expert but I would say there is nothing you can do at this point. Adding more stuff is easy. Removing them, not so much. So just wait and see what happens

 

[snarf7]

The likely outcome? Higher alcohol and potentially perceived sweetness. It's not exactly a bitter style, so if you started towards the high end of the bitterness range, you may even be ok.
If I were in your shoes, I'd just let it be, and enjoy a little extra kick when enjoying it with holiday dinner.

Cheers!

Interesting. so not as bad as I thought perhaps. I actually ****ed this up multiple ways...the volume of wort after the boil was over what it should have been...usually I'm a little light and need to add some water to compensate but this time I was over by about 25%.

 

[snarf7]

A little bit of both most likely. If it were light DME the sweetness is not as pronounced but alcohol is going to be higher for sure because you added more fermentable stuff. Does not mean its going to be bad though. As a fan of high ABV beers this may turn out to be a happy accident fingers crossed or it may throw the carefully thought out balance of ingredients out of the whack. Who can say? I am not an expert but I would say there is nothing you can do at this point. Adding more stuff is easy. Removing them, not so much. So just wait and see what happens

yeah it was light DME so hopefully it doesn't come out syrupy sweet

 

[JohnSand]

You can still hop it with hop tea, or a small addition of very hoppy wort.
Or run it through a recipe calculator and see what styles it matches as is.

 

[JacktardBrewmeister]

Well, sweet is not really something I'd worry about. More importantly, what is the recipe as that will dictate more on how it will turn out. I mean, you could have, through the power of tomfoolery made yourself a nice little Imperial Irish Red that will make your nipples hard and grow a comb over out of your arse. But again, this is speculation without a recipe. Most likely, you'll just have a much higher ABV then planned. Unless you used a yeast that can't handle all that delicious ABV goodness you just made and your FG ends at like 1.03 or something like that. More info'd be nice. b^^

 

[snarf7]

Well, sweet is not really something I'd worry about. More importantly, what is the recipe as that will dictate more on how it will turn out. I mean, you could have, through the power of tomfoolery made yourself a nice little Imperial Irish Red that will make your nipples hard and grow a comb over out of your arse. But again, this is speculation without a recipe. Most likely, you'll just have a much higher ABV then planned. Unless you used a yeast that can't handle all that delicious ABV goodness you just made and your FG ends at like 1.03 or something like that. More info'd be nice. b^^

1 gal recipe

1.05 kg DME
100 g Carared
25 g Carapils
25 g Melanoiden
25 g Roasted Barley
10 g Flaked Wheat

Kent Golding 6g @ 60
Kent Golding 3g @ 1 min

 

[JacktardBrewmeister]

Yeast?

 

[snarf7]

Yeast?

Oops sorry...Wyeast Irish 1084

Also, it fermented so vigorously it overflowed a bit and pushed the stopper halfway out

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I enjoyed a whiskey barrel aged Irish red imported from Ireland. If you manage the fermentation temp, it probably won't taste "hot", but if you don't like the SG sample when it is done you can always add Oak and/ or a little Jameson's for flavor balance... If you like that sort of beer.

 

[S-Met]

Bottling? Be extra diligent to be sure you are at terminal gravity, may stall out then restart.

Rough guess, but approx og for your recipe is 1.120-1.130 assuming 1 gal. That yeast tolerance is 12%, but many have seen higher, maybe 14%. I'd expect fg to be 1.025-1.035 but I'm assuming everything is perfect.

Probably ending with a "strong" ale with a bite/hot/burn. If so, let it ride 6-12 months ageing in the bottle. May be pleasantly surprised.

 

[JacktardBrewmeister]

Sooo, yeah, it's going to be riding high as a strong ale, which is fine really. But as S-Met said, you're gonna want to sit on it for a while and if you bottle, a year of aging will mellow it out nicely and this is probably a happy accident unless there is no flavor for X-amount of reasons. If the yeast burns out and you find the final result too sweet, you "can" put in a little WLP099 Super High gravity ale yeast but your Irish yeast should be fine. b^^

 

[charliethebum]

Just let it ride. You're going to end up with a strong beer and more likely than not it'll be better than you expect. If it ends too sweet some hop tea will balance it right out and if it's hot tasting some time in the bottle will mellow it. My bet is it will be a damn fine brew! In other words, RDWHAHB

 

[Syn]

I’ve done this before...I think a lot of us have. It’s not a bad thing though. I think this is how many styles of beer have come to fruition, from happy accidents, albeit. That being said, I have corrected this by ever so slightly reducing the temp in my chamber to offset the efficiency. Through a little math, this seemed to work. The batch turned out great but it was mostly theoretical how it turned out. Enjoy your beer! I’d like to know how it turned out.

 

[4of7]

Just enjoy it..it will push the abv up.how much dme did you add?

 

[4of7]

On a side note I also have a root cellar / garage pit in my shop i considered keg conditioning in there have you done that if so what are the temperatures in there I'm not going to be fermenting in there at all..

 

[davidabcd]

It's hard to mess up beer. A lot of newer brewers don't get that until they do something like you've done. In the main, your "error" is really sort of minor. You have to work at it to wreck a batch which is something I've found to be amazing but true. Experience will prove this out.
How fortuitous that you used a high gravity yeast (based on what I read above). I think you've discovered something wonderful--as long as you don't mind high gravity beer.

 

[snarf7]

You guys were spot on with these comments, let respond to each

Bottling? Be extra diligent to be sure you are at terminal gravity, may stall out then restart.

Rough guess, but approx og for your recipe is 1.120-1.130 assuming 1 gal. That yeast tolerance is 12%, but many have seen higher, maybe 14%. I'd expect fg to be 1.025-1.035 but I'm assuming everything is perfect.

Probably ending with a "strong" ale with a bite/hot/burn. If so, let it ride 6-12 months ageing in the bottle. May be pleasantly surprised.

Yes, FG came out to be 1022. It does have a bit more bite but not as over the top as I was expecting. For the bottling do I still want to add priming sugar or not here? It comes off as a little sweet already so I'm not sure how to proceed with this.

The likely outcome? Higher alcohol and potentially perceived sweetness. It's not exactly a bitter style, so if you started towards the high end of the bitterness range, you may even be ok.
If I were in your shoes, I'd just let it be, and enjoy a little extra kick when enjoying it with holiday dinner.

Cheers!

Yep, correct on both accounts, it's sort of a cloying sweetness and I was surprised how much the hops came through actually. What do you think best next step would be, just bottle it and let it ride and see how it comes out? Or should I try to mitigate the sweetness a bit somehow? I dont know that adding more hops would help, i think it's hoppy enough but not sure what else I could try?

cheers

 

[S-Met]

What do you think best next step would be, just bottle it and let it ride and see how it comes out?

I only understand the theory, I have not lived this exaxt reality... yet, so I don't actually have the eqipment to follow my suggestion.

I would consider several options:
Bulk age.
Bottle in Belgian or Champagne bottles (though I do have champagne bottles and corks) for higher pressure in case of mis-calcs.

Don't get over-correct happy. Done this too many times. If you want to experiment, make notes and do it for single bottles.

 

[snarf7]

OK thanks for your input guys, I decided to let it ride and see how it turns out, I have a feeling the conditioning process will only improve it. I'll try one in 2-3 weeks and see how it works out. From my hydrometer readings it should clock in a little over 8% ABV so hopefully it will be perfect for the holidays