Advice wanted - Over Hopped Beer

[jewwie]

I put down my second AG beer yesterday from the recipe section - Three Shades Stout. I divided the recipe by 2 since I don't have the equipment to do a 50 litre batch. Unfortunately I didn't divide the hop additions by 2 and now I have a wort heading towards 70 IBU! Not what I wanted for a stout. Also it is a no chill.
I haven't pitched the yeast yet so I am looking for options please. Any ideas?

 

[n87]

call it an Indian stout?

 

[damoninja]

70 IBU is pretty high but without knowing your OG hard to say what the impact of that will be, some stouts are ~60 IBU and you wouldn't know it.

You could dilute adding DME to bring back your target OG, this will naturally affect the rest of your grain bill too so you could try and back retroactively make this up by steeping the same ratio of other grains.

Edit: Derp
I'll look in the recipe section for the OG............

 

[black_labb]

You could balance the flavour out with some sweetness and body by steeping some extra spec malts. Medium Crystal malts or Golden naked oats would be good choices. It will be different of course but not inappropriate.

 

[peteru]

Ferment it and put another batch on, but this time with much lower IBU. Blend the results.

I have a "******* keg" where I blend things that may have gone too far in a specific direction. It's contents tend to vary from barely drinkable, to wow, I'll never reproduce this again. Beer blending is quite an eye opener, often things turn out unexpected. However, having said that, if you have the same base beer, that only has different bittering, the results should be fairly predictable.

 

[damoninja]

Hmm looking at that grain bill my suggestion probably won't work perfectly but it will work alright.

If you wanted to do it perfectly (well not but as close as you can right now) what you'd ideally need to do is brew it again with NO hops and blend the two

Pitch yeast, whatever you do you can do after pitch.

 

[jewwie]

Thanks for the advice. I won't have a chance to brew another batch for another 3 weekends so I'm leaning towards the DME option. Could I get a can of extract (maybe a coopers), then dilute it to my target gravity? Apologies if this offends any AGers but that's what I've been doing for the last 25 years.

 

[Yob]

I'd suggest a little man up is required.. 80 IBU is a good place as a starting point

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I agree. Don't mess with it. Brew it. You might like it that way. I remember a pale ale I made before software that was awesome triple hopped with Sorochi Ace. Then when I got software I plugged in that recipe and it calculated at 55IBU for a pale at 5%. It was bitter but creamy some how. Like Greek yoghurt. That sounds totally weird but that was my recorded notes. It was a cracker.

 

[jewwie]

Haha. I admit that I was leaning towards just leaving it. Then I thought Imperial Stout So I've got 2 kg of LME which is going to go in to boost the OG and hopefully I will get around a 7.5% ABV and a FG of around 1020. I'll definitely do the Three Shades again as I've been eyeing out that recipe for weeks.

 

[Droopy Brew]

LIke Yob said- let it ride man. 70 IBU in a Stout is fine IMO, it will handle it.

Like putting on a wrong bet, I never cancel it and sometimes arse beats class and I back a winner.

 

[jewwie]

Ok Ok. I'll leave it. I just tasted the wort and man is it good. I realise the sweetness of the wort is balancing out the bitterness but I reckon it should turn out all right. OG 1.054 - which is higher than the anticipated OG of the recipe but that's because I started with less water for my boil and ended up with 19 litres. I'll pitch yeast tonight and let you know how it turns out - if anyone's interested.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

I know I will sleep better tonight now.

It is what it is and I'll bet it is a good beer. Less the stress and worrying and toiling messing around that may waste ingredients and turn it to mud.
Relax don't worry, have a home brew.

 

[jewwie]

Update: So I didn't mess with my stuff up and finally kegged and force carbonated yesterday. Also got myself a little present - Nitro . Well, I poured my first glass and ... I like it, I like it a lot. Could not be happier with it. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Nitro?

 

[jewwie]

Nitrogen dispensing

 

[Coodgee]

good shit man. glad it turned out well.

 

[Killer Brew]

Nitro?

Makes the keg go faster

 

[damoninja]

Makes the keg go faster

Since it's so damn easy to drink nitro stout yes, it would