Added too much hops, scales on wrong setting

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

ekul

Well-Known Member
Joined
23/4/10
Messages
1,603
Reaction score
54
So i made up a coopers sparkling 'clone' this evening, unfortunately my scales were set to dwt instead of grams. I needed 29g of POR but instead ending up adding 45g. I was thinking of adding 500g of malt extract to counteract the IBUS

My recipe was

4.8kg pale ale malt
.2kg wheat malt
.15kg simpsons medium crystal

45g POR pellet 9%aa (instead of 29g)
OG 1050 fg 1009
IBUs 50.1 (instead of 32.3)

Do you reckon 500g of ldme will balance it up a little?

Only figured it out when i was making my next batch (doing two single this evening!) and i thought ross hadn't put the whole 90g in the packet. Its never happened to me before so i check my scales and realised they were on the wrong setting!!
 
Personally, l'd leave it.

I just don't like the idea of adding extract to an AG beer.

Could perhaps steep some extra crystal or carapils to add to it?

Or just leave it.

Scott
 
Jerry said:
Personally, l'd leave it.

I just don't like the idea of adding extract to an AG beer.

Could perhaps steep some extra crystal or carapils to add to it?

Or just leave it.

Scott
I dont like the idea of adding extract to my beer either. However this beer was mashed at 62 and will have little malt backbone to support this level of bitterness. I thought a little extract might sweeten her up a bit.
 
Let it go as is.

Coopers categorise the sparkling ale as an Oktoberfest (bjcp 3B), so 50 IBU is quite high in comparison.

That said, while POR isn't my favourite hop, 50 IBU for a 1050 ale isn't outrageous. Let it go and put it down to experience.
 
How does your Sparkling clone turn out with 0.15kg of Medium Crystal? Seems a bit on the light side.
 
ekul said:
I dont like the idea of adding extract to my beer either. However this beer was mashed at 62 and will have little malt backbone to support this level of bitterness. I thought a little extract might sweeten her up a bit.

Mashed at 62?

Yeah, going to be pretty dry.

Still don't like the DME option. Simplest, but still.......

Steep some specialty grain option?

Otherwise, don't like a refreshing shandy do you?
 
do you have any aroma hops to add as a dry hop?

Take the IBU hit and give it away as a clone and bang it for aroma...
 
Just brew another batch with a lower IBU to balance your brew and then blend the two.
I have done this before and it works well.
POR is not a forgiving hop when you have added too much and it will never smooth out with time like some other varieties do.
 
Personally I find tablespoons are a better more intuitive measure of hops.
 
TimT said:
Personally I find tablespoons are a better more intuitive measure of hops.
That is rubbish advice Tim. How are you ever going to achieve consistency if you are using tablespoons as a unit of measurement. What exactly is a tablespoon anyway? I have 3 sets of 'measuring spoons' that are all totally different in their definition of a tablespoon.

Incidently, my car gets 3 rods to the hogs head and that's the way I like it!
 
probably more a statement that advice, but i do agree with gal. having said that, if you work out your OWN measurements hops and respective bitterness then who cares, but for ease of consistency, i'd stick with grams, and just chalk this one up to learning.
 
Yob probably gave one of the easiest options.
 
Tablespoons are a standard measurement. As with many measurements there are sometimes quirks and differences between countries. Look, it works for me; I find them much more reliable than my scales.
 
How do you measure the bitterness in the brewing software? I haven't seen tablespoons in the drop down menus :)
 
Tim- If you're using high alpha hops, you want things to be accurate. Get some cheap digital scales, mate.

Ekul- If it was me, I would just call it a hoppy Aussie Ale.

Or, add the DME as suggested.
 
TimT said:
Tablespoons are a standard measurement. As with many measurements there are sometimes quirks and differences between countries. Look, it works for me; I find them much more reliable than my scales.
Thats a lot of tablespooning if your doing an IPA
 
I did something similar. Miscalculated and added too many hops and then compounded things by not adjusting my hop timings to account for the fact that I was "No Chill Cubing".

I ended up with a beer that was way too hoppy/bitter for my tastes.

I kegged it with a couple of litres of lemonade and it was a huge hit as a very strong shandy. We knocked over the 19 litre keg in a week, whilst working in the garden and around the house.

Cheers
Andy
 
TimT said:
Tablespoons are a standard measurement. As with many measurements there are sometimes quirks and differences between countries. Look, it works for me; I find them much more reliable than my scales.
And quirks and differences in what's being measured. And quirks and differences in whether the teaspoon is heaped or level.
And quirks and differences in whether it's a metric tablespoon or something else.

It may suit your brewing or brewing style - I get that completely. When I cook, I sprinkle salt by eye, I even occasionally add brewing salts by sprinkle but it's not 'more reliable' unless your scales are broken.
 
Well my scales aren't broken so much as very eccentric. On one occasion the needle actually went backwards the more stuff I loaded on, taking the weight into the minus figures - true story! I worked on the assumption that they were still telling the weight accurately - if in reverse order. (I think this was for a cake).

Here's an amusing article about one particular quirk with the tablespoon measurement - on 'the vanishing Australian tablespoon'.
 
Back
Top