Too many fermentables?

[Markdon]

So, ive cocked up. On a grand scale.

I bought a Coopers Euro Lager, and decided i wanted to use extra light spray malt, so bought two 500g packs, and some Saazhops for a tea/dry hop later.

Then i thought is that enough? Theres no sugar! So someone mentioned spray malt is not equal to sugar, so i decided to add some brew enhancer, so bought a 500g pack of that.

No i didnt. I bought a 1kg pack of that! And noticed as i was tidying up waiting for the temp to settle before adding yeast.

Crap.

So its sitting at 1.050 @ 23L

Is this going to be foul??

3rd kit brew, first mistake. Read stuff properly!

 

[Markdon]

There was a bit of foam in trial jar, its actually 1.056

Whoops.

 

[graysalchemy]

Remeber the old saying Life begins at 1050 :whistle: :whistle:

 

[Markdon]

What begins at 1056? Blindness?

 

[jonnymorris]

1.056 doesn't sound particularly high. To be honest, I'm surprised it's so low considering you added 2kg of malt extract/sugar.

My recent Triple started at 1.076.

 

[Markdon]

So it could be ok?

It came with 7g of yeast, will i need more?

This kit is meant to make a 5% lager, if it ferments out at the same as other kits the same, it could work out at 6.6% abv quite strong for a lager?

Will that ruin flavours etc?

 

[Steve]

Will that ruin flavours etc?

It will change the flavour but I doubt very much it will be undrinkable. Remember though that the higher the brew gravity the longer it should be left to conition.

 

[dave0w]

add the yeast and let them do there thing.
yeast get there thing on in your beer and multiply, so no matter if you add 5g or 50g they will get the job done.

 

[Markdon]

The instructions state 12 weeks in the bottle, so should be ready for summer :/

Thanks for the comments, so will be lethal, but drinkable. Cool.

 

[Jeltz]

I would leave it on the yeast for at least 2 weeks, (In fact I would do 3) you will have under pitched the yeast here at that gravity. After the 1st week it will have fermented out most of the sugars but under pitching might well have produced some diacetyl (a buttery flavour) however the once it has consumed the sugars yeast has a lovely trick. It will start to consume some of the off flavours it produced in the early stages, thus cleaning the beer up for you.

 

[Markdon]

Still not kicked off yet, sitting at 20c for 12hrs now.

 

[graysalchemy]

What begins at 1056? Blindness?

1056 is only a 5.5% ish beer not exactly high. I prefer savouring 2 pints of 5.5% with all the complexity of flavour that results, than shovelling down 4 or 5 pints of 3.8% pish water, ifI was to do that I may as well bypass brewing myself and buy some John Sh*te.

Anything I brew above 1070 goes in little 300ml bottles and savoured when drinking. :thumb: :thumb:

 

[bbslaw]

If you're worried about it being too strong, you could dilute it by adding a couple more litres of water (if it will fit in your FV without overflowing!)

 

[phillsky]

What begins at 1056? Blindness?

1056 is only a 5.5% ish beer not exactly high. I prefer savouring 2 pints of 5.5% with all the complexity of flavour that results, than shovelling down 4 or 5 pints of 3.8% pish water, ifI was to do that I may as well bypass brewing myself and buy some John Sh*te.

Anything I brew above 1070 goes in little 300ml bottles and savoured when drinking. :thumb: :thumb:

Now, correct me if I am wrong (I am new to this home brew thing) :) The amount of alcohol depends on the amount of
fermentables, and the yeast attenuation. A coopers yeast has a attenuation of 72 to 77%, an OG of 1056 would give you
a predicted FG between 1012.88 - 1015.68 and an alcohol content between 5.76 - 6.16% So your numbers are close :)

This is what i saw doing my Coopers dark ale, my OG landed on 1056, i got better/higher attenuation 91% FG ended
up being 1005. A tad to strong for a dark ale, but still tastes really good, so I will let it slide this time

More on coopers yeast, the one supplied with the kits. They say a one 7 gram packet is enough if the OG is less than
1050, if the OG is higher, then you will need another packet. When I did my dark ale I followed that instruction, and added
two 7 gram packets. It went off like a rocket, fermented like crazy the first day, and the SG came down to 1013 on the
third day, then it settled down a bit and "only" dropped down to an FG of 1005 with in the next six days.

I am bottling my dark ale later today. I had a sample of it yesterday, and it tastes lovely, strong, but lovely :)

 

[graysalchemy]

Welcome to the forum Philsky

fermented like crazy the first day, and the SG came down to 1013 on the
third day, then it settled down a bit and "only" dropped down to an FG of 1005 with in the next six days.

I would say that most kits come out between 1008 -1010, 1005 seems a tad low and would suggest quite a thin beer IMHO. It will also depend on how much fermenatble sugar you added to the kit ie if you use malt extract kit enhancer or brewing sugar/ household sugar. The latter two probably would drop the FG down. But an attenuation of 91% isn't necessarily a good thing for a balanced beer. :thumb:

 

[Markdon]

How long should i wait before putting some more yeast in? Any ideas of a good strain to use? I cant get the temp below 16c with the radiator switched off in that room.

I might be using the calculator wrong, and it may not ferment out as low as other peoples has, but 1.056 down to 1.006 works out at 6.6%? Even down to 1.010 is 6.1%? Or will it be higher than that?

Its all a bit confusing for me, only my third kit!

Im not too bothered about the abv, more concerned as to how it will taste?

 

[graysalchemy]

How long should i wait before putting some more yeast in? Any ideas of a good strain to use?

Why do you think you need more yeast? once the yeast has got going it should take it down to 1010 I would have thought. If it sticks then give it a gentle stir.

The only problem you get by adding to much fermentable to a kit is that you can end up with a beer which is out of balance with the bitterness, there is a correlation between bitterness and OG, but I wouldn't worry about it just relax it will be great tasting beer. :thumb:

 

[phillsky]

Welcome to the forum Philsky

fermented like crazy the first day, and the SG came down to 1013 on the
third day, then it settled down a bit and "only" dropped down to an FG of 1005 with in the next six days.

I would say that most kits come out between 1008 -1010, 1005 seems a tad low and would suggest quite a thin beer IMHO. It will also depend on how much fermenatble sugar you added to the kit ie if you use malt extract kit enhancer or brewing sugar/ household sugar. The latter two probably would drop the FG down. But an attenuation of 91% isn't necessarily a good thing for a balanced beer. :thumb:

Your absolutely right, it is a little bit to low. But it didn't hurt the taste of the beer to much, it doesn't feel thin. The only difference
is that it has a dry feel to it at the end of the swallow, and that would be expected being a "bit" higher in alc content. This was
my first experiment with a kit, so I was pleasantly surprised by the result. It still needs another 4+ weeks in bottles before it is
done, but so far so good. I was actually aiming for a stronger beer 6 to 6.5%, but not that strong, it sits at 7% now, and it
should gain a bit in the bottles. :) It's going to be fun to follow this beer, see how it changes over time. :)

What I used was.

1,7kg Coopers dark ale
1,5kg TC amber malt extract.
1kg dextrose
12 grams of Amarillo hops (made a hop tea)

I know the 1kg of dextrose was way to much, and would account for the low FG, and higher alc content.
I should have used DME, or more LME, but I didn't have any at home.

This is how we learn, take advice from you guys, and experiment :)

 

[phillsky]

How long should i wait before putting some more yeast in? Any ideas of a good strain to use?

Why do you think you need more yeast? once the yeast has got going it should take it down to 1010 I would have thought. If it sticks then give it a gentle stir.

The only problem you get by adding to much fermentable to a kit is that you can end up with a beer which is out of balance with the bitterness, there is a correlation between bitterness and OG, but I wouldn't worry about it just relax it will be great tasting beer. :thumb:

I second that, let it do it's thing, and see what you get. Keep a good brewers log. Taste the beer when you take an SG reading,
sniff it, write down everything. This way you have a good base of knowledge to tap in to doing your next brew.

Back to the amount of yeast thing. I was only stating what Coopers them self say about there kit yeast. They say that there 7
gram pack is good for a 23 liter batch, if the OG is not higher than 1050, and you brew at room temp 20C. If the OG is higher than
1050, and/or it's colder than 20C, add more yeast. I know people say that you should never brew with the supplied kit yeast, but I
have. And my beer has turned out fine, so far. I will do my next "kit" with another yeast, just to see for my self.

 

[Markdon]

My main concern about the yeast is i pitched it as per instructions at 7pm yesterday, its now 1130am and its not doing anything. Checked the lid, tight, bung and airlock are in tight.

Thanks for explaing everything so far guys, its starting to make more sense.