I made a rookie mistake

[urbanfeeder]

I just made my 3rd brew, Coopers Canadian Blonde, planning to make Blushing Blonde. So focussed on the cleaning, sterilising and sanitising I made basic and dumb mistake: I assumed the boxes of Brew Enhancer 1 were 500g, I added 2 as per the recipe. They're a kilo each! I realised something was wrong when I checked the IG. Then tasted the wort and found it super sweet, then I realised what I've done. Is it ruined? I don't want a super high alcohol beer, will it taste bad?

 

[MHB]

Wont matter all that much BE1 is 60/40 Dextrose/Maltodextrin so you will get a bit more alcohol and a bit higher FG, but probably less than 1% extra alcohol. If its still too sweet at the end of the ferment, you could add a bit more hops as a hop tea to help balance the beer.
Biggest mistake is trying to make up your own shorthand when there is already a pretty well established and universally understood choice.
Original Gravity (O.G.) and Final Gravity (F.G.) are used everywhere, never seen IG.
Mark

 

[Bung Jooce]

Instagram?

Dude I just edited a posts because I used the wrong lingo too! Thanks MHB.

 

[urbanfeeder]

Thanks Mark, glad to know it'll be okay. Was going to let it run to see what happens but nice to know it might actually still be drinkable at the end. I've never seen IG either! hehe my mistake

 

[CaptnToast]

If you haven't dry hopped before this might be a good opportunity to learn and implement to offset some sweetness. As above you will get a small bump in alcohol but not as much as your imagining. if you don't mind sweetness .. do nothing

 

[urbanfeeder]

OK sounds like a plan I'll research how thats done. Cheers

 

[TONY VAN DER ZANDEN]

I just made my 3rd brew, Coopers Canadian Blonde, planning to make Blushing Blonde. So focussed on the cleaning, sterilising and sanitising I made basic and dumb mistake: I assumed the boxes of Brew Enhancer 1 were 500g, I added 2 as per the recipe. They're a kilo each! I realised something was wrong when I checked the IG. Then tasted the wort and found it super sweet, then I realised what I've done. Is it ruined? I don't want a super high alcohol beer, will it taste bad?

If you put 2kg of sugars in a 23lt wort, then i would also suggest doubling the amount of yeast to the mix, your single yeast addition might run out of steam before you finish fermenting, once you finished fermenting with extra yeast you should have dealt with sweet taste, and if bottling, exploding bottles due to not all the sugars being fermented out

 

[Vini2ton]

Never be afraid to blend beers. If it's too sweet or too strong, just blend it with something that offsets what you don't like. I used to like the old black and tan down at the rubbeddy.

 

[MHB]

2 of 1kg packets of BE1, that's 1200g of dextrose, and 800g of maltodextrin that is maybe 10-15% call it 15% for safety.
Dextrose is 91% fermentable so 1200*0.91=1092g, 800g maltodextrin at 15% brings another 120g of fermentables.
Adding two packs is the equivalent of adding 1.212kg (at most) of Maltose or white sugar.
Hardly enough to get too excited about the extra alcohol is going to go pretty much unnoticed, you will get some extra body from all the unfermented maltodextrin.

I'm not going to argue that a better yeast wouldn't be a good call, but we aren't out at the edges of what you can expect the kit yeast to handle.
Tony - you appear to fundamentally misunderstand how yeast works, we are adding a seed, the yeast then reproduces to many hundreds (thousands) of times what we started with, it doesn't do just so much then stop. Yeast will keep working while there is food there (sugar) and the conditions permit (temperature, alcohol, food...)
Might pay to do a bit of reading up on how to manage yeast.
But yes double (roughly) the amount of a better yeast wouldn't hurt the beer at all, just remember that there is a right amount of yeast, you can have too much as well as too little. Getting some oxygen into the wort at the start , fermenting at the right temperature, making sure all the nutrients are available... perhaps more important

In this case for a new brewer, well no need to bury them in advice nor any need for them to panic, it will brew fine and all things being equal will taste Ok - perhaps a bit too sweet - meh learning, if this is the worst that happens he's getting off lightly.
Mark

 

[urbanfeeder]

Thank you so much. Great forum, all the advice is much appreciated.

I had been doing some reading and so I had upgraded my yeast from the tin one to 10g Mangrove Jacks Californian Lager yeast which ferments at ale temperatures. I also made sure I got a lot of oxygen into the wort as I mixed in the BE1. My root cellar where my brew is, sits at a steady 20c. So plenty of oxygen, decent amount of good yeast and right temperature.

From what I've read here I'm not too worried. I'll be careful to ensure full 3 days of unaltered FG before bottling to be on the safe side.

What if I let it sit on the cake for a week - would that help me reduce the sweetness further?

 

[Naboo]

No. Leaving it on the yeast cake won't reduce any sweetness. Provided the yeast has finished its job and you've got a stable FG, leaving it on the yeast cake will not alter sweetness levels at all.

 

[urbanfeeder]

OG was 1110 on Tuesday measured it today and its already down to 1030 and on tasting it nowhere near sweet as I was expecting got a nice raspberry aroma to it too. Think its going to turn out fine

 

[Ditchnbeer]

Having a higher OG than expected is not biggie, it will change the style with higher alcohol, which doesnt matter if you just drinking it at home with mates. Will matter if for a comp. However the critical thing here is how much yeast was pitched. If there is less yeast that can handle the OG then high chance that it will struggle, and may produce off flavours / wont reach FG. If you pitched a good amount of healthy yeast, then perhaps the beer will still ferment out and make a drinkable beer. Always use Brewers Friend yeast calculator to take the guess work out, and ensure that you always pitch enought healthy yeast for each beer regardless of brew day variances Yeast Pitch Rate and Starter Calculator - Brewer's Friend