Too much beer while brewing

[mgregg]

Sooo, I wound up with a few hours today and decided I would brew up a kit I had sitting in the basement. Northern Brewer, Surly Bitter partial mash clone. I always like to have a beer or 2 of the style I'm brewing while I'm brewing it so I may have had a goose island honkers ale or 2. Plus a couple of DIPA's I brewed a couple months ago. And maybe a barleywine I bottled a couple weeks ago(just to check carbonation). Anyways, everything went well. Mash temp was spot on, added the bittering hops, boil went well, then came time to add the flame out hops. The kit came with 5 ounces of glacier hops. .5 oz with the mash, 1.75oz at flameout and 2.5oz for dry hopping. I took a nap when the boil was done after putting the hot wort in an empty chest freezer to cool. When I woke up and went to add the top up water and yeast I wasn't sure if I had added the flameout hops. Looked around my brew room and couldn't find any hops. Checked the garbage. 5 empty 1oz glacier hop pellet packets on top of all the other garbage from brewing. Apparently I added 4.5oz at flameout instead of the 1.75 the recipe called for.

I'm a little worried that my bitter may turn out way too bitter, but I guess I'll have to wait a few weeks until primary fermentation is done. I brewed this kit once before and it got infected and was undrinkable so I'm really hoping that the excessive flameout hops won't ruin this batch too.

Anybody have any ideas what adding all these hops at flameout vs using them for dryhopping will do? Or any good stories about brew days gone wrong because of a few too many?

 

[OCHawgy]

That is awesome! Drinking while brewing is a ritual, but to the point where you jack up your recipe?... epic! I am no "pro brewer" but my understanding is flameout hops won't add much for IBUs, if any at all. Sure, with that amount and if added as soon as you cut the burner you may have added a few IBUs (at most?) but I wouldn't be too concerned about it. You may still have a good hop aroma but not as strong as you would get had you dry hopped the 2.5 ounces when you were supposed to. I would look at it as a premature dry hopped beer.

I suppose a little mystery when you pop that first bottle cap or take the first pull off the keg will enhance the excitement... provided you didn't contaminate again of course

 

[Gavin C]

When I woke up and went to add the top up water and ...

Any particular reason you don't add the hot wort to cold water in the FV. This will get you very rapid cooling and allow better mixing, more rapid cooling to pitching temps and allow an earlier pitch of yeast.

Is this the norm or just part of the alcamahol induced process.

 

[xandersaml]

Any particular reason you don't add the hot wort to cold water in the FV. This will get you very rapid cooling and allow better mixing, more rapid cooling to pitching temps and allow an earlier pitch of yeast.

Is this the norm or just part of the alcamahol induced process.

He may have a good reason why he didn't this time anyway

 

[Hex23]

I assume your concern is mostly around the fact that since you didn't chill rapidly, you isomerized more hops than you wanted to? Since a chest freezer is not going to chill very fast (heat transfer to air is not efficient), it's possible the temp stayed high for a while. I would think that a true flameout addition (without a "hop stand") would have the intended effect only if you chill rapidly. There a few bits of information out there on the relationship b/t temp and isomerization rate, but it's probably difficult to apply. I'd just chalk this one up to experience and see how it turns out. It's probably not going to be too bad, definitely drinkable.

 

[brewcat]

Why I drink after I'm done. Too funny.

 

[Subdivisions]

Hmmm. I'm brewing in the morning. Maybe I'd better stop drinking now.

 

[BigDog007]

Been there, done that, I no longer start drinking when I brew in the mornings. I made a great amber ale last time and I have absolutely no idea how to replicate.

I didn't drink a session beer either, I drank almost a full keg of an 8% IPA......

 

[mgregg]

Any particular reason you don't add the hot wort to cold water in the FV. This will get you very rapid cooling and allow better mixing, more rapid cooling to pitching temps and allow an earlier pitch of yeast.

Is this the norm or just part of the alcamahol induced process.

This is the norm for me, even when I'm not a little under the influence. I try to do full boils so I'm usually only adding 1/2-1 gallon of water to the fermentor. I started cooling this way last winter when I could just throw the brew pot outside for a few hours and never had a problem so I decided to put my empty chest freezer to use and keep cooling my wort this way. I know it's not ideal, but i"ve had good luck with it so far and it saves my from spending money on ice.

 

[bobeer]

Even though you didnt cool the wort before adding the flameout hops it wont add a crazy amount of bitterness. I've done this exact same thing several times in the winter when the pipes are too frozen to use my immersion chiller outside. I've brewed a few batches that I've chilled before adding the whirlpool hops and i can't notice much if a difference when i add them right off the stove.
It might be slightly more bitter but i think you'll be ok.

 

[Callacave]

You made the best mistake you could do. Even though it may not end up like it was intended, you'll have a better beer in the end. Just get some more hops so you can dry hop it. Love flameout additions. Especially low temp steeping. Tons of flavor and aroma. Last ipa I did had 8 oz @ 140F for 30 min. Best beer I've brewed

 

[BetterSense]

Any particular reason you don't add the hot wort to cold water in the FV. This will get you very rapid cooling and allow better mixing, more rapid cooling to pitching temps and allow an earlier pitch of yeast.

Uh, nope. You have that backward. Adding top-off water just before pitching is the faster route to pitching temperature than adding it at any earlier time. Newton's law of cooling guarantees it.

Adding water immediately will immediately drop the wort temperature some, if that is your goal, but it increases the amount of time it will take to get to pitching temperature vs. leaving the wort hot as long as possible and adding the top off water just before pitching. The difference can be significant.

 

[mgregg]

3 weeks in and the beer is just starting to clear. I think this is due more to the yeast i used(50/50 nottingham and windsor mix) than to the extra hops. I was going to keg it today, but since it's still a little cloudy I transferred it to secondary hoping that it settles out and clears up a little more. I sampled a little bit to see what effect my little mistake would have on it and I'm happy to say that it tastes pretty good. A little bit more bitter then I was shooting for, but still pretty good. I'm going to let it sit in secondary for a few days then dry hop in the keg with just one ounce of glacier instead of the 2.5 oz the recipe called for. I think it may turn out pretty good after all, and I learned a valuable lesson that I will definitely remember forever.

Or at least until I crack my third beer halfway through my next brewday.

 

[Callacave]

The haze is actually from the hops as well as some yeast. Such a large flameout addition always causes hop haze, as well as dry hopping. I love that juicy/hazy look to a well hopped beer. I say keg or bottle, and enjoy fresh.

Clear beer is never my goal, but when it happens it can be a nice treat. I think hazy is just as beautiful and most times more flavorful with a better mouthfeel than clear beer, and lends to a nice rustic/farmhouse type of visual quality.

 

[olotti]

I love hazy beer to me it just shows that it's hoppy as sh-t and it's all dry hop haze.