Very late extract addition

[HolyDiver]

I had a few too many home brews while brewing a partial mash Ipa a few weeks ago. Things seemed to be going fine. I chilled wort, transferred to my carboy, got my hydro reading, then when I went to check it, I instantly realized what I missed. My sg was 1.040, and should have been about 1.064. I had forgotten 3 Lbs of DME... begin drunken panic! I sanitized a funnel and began to pour it in dry, this clogged the funnel, so I boiled some water and began to pour it on the DME. It all got in there, then I shook it like crazy, and pitched as normal.

I know all the things I did wrong (drunken panic). The problem is its been 3 weeks, and the beer is still cloudy as all hell. Gravity seems to be holding steady at 1.018, one more reading will tell me for sure.

My idea is to transfer to a secondary, so I can free up my primary. Then wait a few more weeks, and use gelatin to clear it.

 

[shawnbou]

I don't think I can offer much in the way of help, but I'll raise my glass to your drunken panic. Who hasn't been there?

How's the beer taste now? The cloudiness might be a result of a bacterial infection that got in there with the DME you added directly to the carboy, but it could also be something much more benign. I do suspect though that adding boiling water to the fermenting beer probably shocked the yeast, which may be why you're not getting full attenuation.

Attenuation issues could also be from not pitching enough yeast. 1.064 is not a ridiculously big beer, but it's on the high end of medium. What kind of yeast did you pitch, and did you use a starter?

Good luck and let us know how it turns out. Maybe this will end up as a post on that "mistakes you made where the beer turned out great" thread.

 

[HolyDiver]

I pitched the yeast after all the craziness, so the boiling water was mixed in very well. It was a Wyeast London Ale (1028) slurry from a lower gravity batch.

The samples have tasted not bad, yet not great. I don't think it is infected. Really what it looks like is a beer with a bunch of loose sugar floating in it. Not to say that's what it is. But that's the best way I can describe it.

I brewed a make up batch a week later. Same recipe, same steps, just DME went in at proper time. That batch is very clear and tastes better.