Would you tinker or let it go.

[cklages]

On the most recent all grain batches I have made, I've noticed that the FG has been staying a little higher than I would like (around 1.017 to 1.020), so in trying to drop this down a little, my most recent batch I did a 90 minute mash around 149 to thin out the final product just a little. I also used some minute rice to keep the colour light, and upped the two row a little to compensate for my usual efficiency (which normally runs 70%). I expected to get a pale ale running around 5.2% with an FG of around 1.012-1.014.

For whatever reason, be it the longer mash/different crush, I ended up closer to 80%, and after the ferment my ABV is closer to 6.7% and gravity is sitting around 1.008. So I now have a thin, high alcohol beer. The hydrometer sample tasted okay (no real off flavours although beyond that its hard to judge), but this isnt really the beer that I wanted.

My question is, should I try to dilute before bottling (which will get the alcohol down, but thin it further). Would putting maltodextrin in the dilution water help fill out the body? I'm also not completely opposed to just letting this run its course. I have had a few higher alcohol beers that weren't bad, only I'm not sure that they were this thin.

In short, I think I can fix this in my next beer, but what would you do with this batch?

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Drink this one, fix the next.

 

[cklages]

Very good, thanks for the advice. I was kind of leaning that way, fingers are crossed.

 

[cklages]

So I figured that it was only fair that I update this (I hate reading threads like this and never hearing what happened).

The beer has been in bottles a little over two weeks and I decided to give one a try. The temps have been a little low in the house, so I new that it wasn't completely done, but I couldn't wait anymore.

Like I suspected, it was slightly undercarbed, but definitely getting there. The flavour knocked my socks off though. Probably one of the cleanest beers I've brewed so far, just a hint of pear esters (which to be frank I really like). Zero alcohol bite, no phenols. This is already the best beer I've ever brewed and it isn't even done yet.

The kicker is that I fermented this with the recalled lot of notty, and I had very bad luck with the two previous notty beers I made (off flavours that never completely faded) The only difference was that these packs of notty came from a different retailer half way across the country. (sorry i didn't want to beat that horse, but I figured it was a part of the story).

Considering the outcome, the only thing that would have made me happier is if I had washed that yeast and saved it. I am really hoping that the US-05 that I have started using will give me similar results.

Now I just have to work on repeating the mistakes to I can reproduce the outcome.