Dilution

old soak · Oct 21, 2011

I am currently brewing a Muntons Gold Imperial Stout kit. I decided to increase the strength (and add some other flavours to get a dense Xmas stout) to hopefully around 7% by reducing the amount of water I added, so i topped up to 15.5 Litres instead of the kit standard 23 Litres, to get an OG of 1063.

After 3 days it's down to 1030 and pretty much stopped but leaving it for a few more days at least.

Anyway my question is this:-
Have I gone to far with the under dilution? I tasted it and it is incredibly bitter, which to some extent I expected with a stout (this is my first stout kit) but:-
will it mellow out in the bottle or should it taste ok before bottling?
If the latter, should I:-
1. Add more (boiled and cooled) water to the fermenter to dilute?
2. Add some lactose before bottling? If so how much, I don't want it to be really sweet.
3. Another solution I don't know about?

thanks for any advice you can give.

markp · Oct 21, 2011

What temperature is the brew at?
It sounds like like it has stopped fermenting.....could be due to the cold or you could have a stuck fermentation.

Make sure the FV is around 20 degress and use a sanitised paddle or spoon to rouse the yeast back in to suspension. Hopefully this will get it going again.

The taste will improve with time.

old soak · Oct 21, 2011

Thanks for the reply. Last time I measured the temperature was about 17 c which is probably too low. I have already roused it and have now placed it by a radiator for a short while to try and get it going. Need to get some kind of heating belt for the winter I think.

So you don't think it will require lactose or more dilution to make it drinkable?

markp said:
What temperature is the brew at?
It sounds like like it has stopped fermenting.....could be due to the cold or you could have a stuck fermentation.

Make sure the FV is around 20 degress and use a sanitised paddle or spoon to rouse the yeast back in to suspension. Hopefully this will get it going again.

The taste will improve with time.

shearclass · Oct 21, 2011

at 1.030 the brew should be really, and I mean really sweet, not bitter.

Sorry if this sounds funny, but are you sure the hydrometer reading is correct.

I did that kit to about 21-22 litres and it was bloody nice, by the way. I hope yours ferments out as it should.

old soak · Oct 21, 2011

Yeah, I suppose it is strange but I assumed it was because I'd added so much less water that the bitterness was so strong. Pretty sure the reading was correct, guess I'll just wait and see what happens. Thanks for the input.

shearclass said:
at 1.030 the brew should be really, and I mean really sweet, not bitter.
Sorry if this sounds funny, but are you sure the hydrometer reading is correct.
I did that kit to about 21-22 litres and it was bloody nice, by the way. I hope yours ferments out as it should.

markp · Oct 21, 2011

Due to you using less water than usual, you will get a higher ABV and also a higher bitterness value (same hops in less volume).
The two should balance out quite well once it has been aged for a while.

At a gravity of 1030, it is nowhere near finished yet......what you are currently tasting will not really be reflective of the finished beer.

Give it time; but firstly, get the fermentation going again :thumb: