Can my bitter batch be saved?

[Bdogg]

I've made a terrible mistake.

I was brewing an extra special (expensive) NEIPA that called for 300g of aroma hops, 15 mins @ 80 deg.

I misread the recipe, and boiled them for 15 minutes.

Brewfather tells me this would give me an IBU of 186, which is just slightly higher than the intended 41. Its currently sitting as ~23L of wort in a cube.

Now that I've finished crying, can it be saved? It's high ABV, Maybe I can split it into 4 and dilute it? Or maybe it's a sink job.

Here's the recipe, mine was slightly modified but pretty much the same numbers.

https://hoppydaysbrewingsupplies.com.au/product/hoppy-daze-23l/
Help!

 

[Bdogg]

Brewfather says 20L of top of water gets me back down to 48 IBU.

I could do that by splitting the wort in half, adding 10L water and doing 2x 21.5L ferments.

Am I back in the game?

 

[razz]

How does it taste Bdogg?

 

[Bdogg]

How does it taste Bdogg?

Its sealed in a cube, haven't tasted it. Bitter I'd assume

 

[MHB]

One of those reality strikes again moments.
There is a very real upper limit to the amount of Iso-Alpha that will dissolve in a wort, at 20oC its about 104 IBU worth. Any more just winds up in trub, just like the 10,11-12th teaspoon of sugar in a cupper would all sit on the bottom, you have passes the solubility limit.
So you don't have 186 IBU, remember that IBU's are measured in finished beer, during fermentation a bunch sticks to the yeast, the container, trub... by the end of fermentation, packaging and maturation it will be closer to 85 IBU.

I remember a fairly prominent brewer here years ago who said he was making a 400 IBU beer, he sent a bottle to someone I know, who shared, and some went off to a lab, 86 IBU.

I would just brew it, and see how it goes, you could still dilute it or blend it with another beer if its undrinkable.

I do wish a few of the people who write software would take a reality pill and quit quoting stupid IBU numbers, when people rely on the software rather than understand what is really going on, it would be handy if the software got it close to right.
Mark

 

[Bdogg]

T

......
I would just brew it, and see how it goes, you could still dilute it or blend it with another beer if its undrinkable.
......

Thanks Mark, it always seems to be you pulling me out of the ****!! Much appreciated.

Would you ferment it as is? Is there any difference in diluting it now vs after its beer?

 

[MHB]

Yes and Yes, if you dilute it now you will never know what it would have tasted like undiluted, treat it as somethin to learn from.
Its a big beer, note in the recipe it says 2 packets of US-05, do use 2, keep the ferment reasonably cool 16-19oC and be patient with the ferment. Maybe let it ramp up closer to 20oC once you have got through 2/3 of the ferment, that will let it finish off a little faster.

Will be interested in how it turns out. If you are kegging its easy enough to do some blending or diluting later, very hard to undilute it.
Mark

 

[Bdogg]

Yes and Yes, if you dilute it now you will never know what it would have tasted like undiluted, treat it as somethin to learn from.
Its a big beer, note in the recipe it says 2 packets of US-05, do use 2, keep the ferment reasonably cool 16-19oC and be patient with the ferment. Maybe let it ramp up closer to 20oC once you have got through 2/3 of the ferment, that will let it finish off a little faster.

Will be interested in how it turns out. If you are kegging its easy enough to do some blending or diluting later, very hard to undilute it.
Mark

Ok, well that's the plan. Thanks Mark, I'll see how I go and will update.

 

[razz]

Its sealed in a cube, haven't tasted it. Bitter I'd assume

Sorry, I didn’t realise it wasn’t fermented.

 

[NattyJ]

As advised. Go for it.
Leave it.
It may a great Bitter beer vs a NEIPA.
Always good taste along the way as well. Maybe I'm just super curious!

Who knows, you may end up loving it!
As others have said. You can always blend later even in the glass!

Good luck.

The plus side? You'll probably only ever make that mistake once.
Cheers,

 

[adamsec]

I would leave it

Bitterness always subsides so worst case you just need to wait an extra month to enjoy it.

nothing worse than watered down beer

 

[shacked]

If you keg it, consider brewing a beer that is less bitter (or no hops) and blend it. You can get pretty creative on the types of beer you blend.

Blending is fun. I've got a cellar with a few hundred litres in various vessels of sours of up to 3 years old and blending is a critical part of the sour beer process!

 

[Bdogg]

Ok, well here's an update.

I fermented it at 16 for 7 days and 18 for 4 days, dry hopped with 100g of something on day 5 (abandoned the recipe).

It's drinkable. It's definitely bitter. Nowhere near what I was imagining, which goes a lot to what Mark was saying - its not the 186IBU that Brewfather claimed.

It has a good character underneath the bitterness, but yeah definitely quite bitter.

I'm glad I fermented it, it still might be a sink job as I'm not sure I have the thirst to battle through it, but I learned a lot and considering my Christmas holiday goal was to knock out a bunch of brews and see what I can learn I'll call it a success.

Thanks to everyone for your help!

 

[Bdogg]

 

[Grmblz]

If the base flavour is good Just brew another without the hops and blend, I hate chucking beer down the drain, mind you I also hate drinking bad beer. If you do decide to blend please let us know how it went.

 

[Hangover68]

is it arse clinching bitter or not that bad ? blending is a good option.

 

[Bdogg]

Not that bad, I'm not a big fan of a lot of bitter at the best of times and I've been drinking it.

Seems like the punters want to see it blended, it's a good idea but I'm not sure I have the fortitude to spend a whole brew day saving it, especially when I'm dreaming about a Belgian dubbel receipe that's calling my name.