Nightmare first brew!

Hey guys,

Finally got around to my first brew today, after thinking of giving it a go for a good while now.

The plan was to aim for a best bitter style, consisting of 90% Maris otter and 10% crystal L60.

I was running a small 5l batch too, which meant that the crystal malts needed was below the minimum order amount - I had 500g, but the recipe only called for 100g.

However, and much to my novices horror, after setting the grains to mash, I realised I’d used the whole lot of crystals! Proper forehead slap moment!!

So, jumped onto Brewers Friend, adjusting the recipe to account for my mistake, which involved upping the hops to get the IBU back on track and completed the boil.

A quick taste of the wort before settling to cool (using no chill method) showed I had very sweet and very bitter wort.

Will pitch yeast in the morning, ESB style dry yeast.

What do you think the likely outcome is here?

I’m thinking it’s a wasted batch, but I’m probably going to see it through fermentation to try and learn whatever I can from the mistake.

Any thoughts welcome!
Cheers

I reckon you'll make beer. It might not be the best beer you've ever had but I would definitely see it through now. Wort always tastes overly sweet and bitter in my experience. Onwards and upwards!

Wort normally tastes sweet with a not particularly pleasant 'green' bitter finish. Carry on as planned, if everything else went as planned then I think you're still on track.

So presuming there was 900g of maris otter then it's now 35% crystal? Please for the love of god post regular tastings of this beer. You could brew up another 3.6kg of Maris otter to blend with it but I want to see how this beast manifests.

Recipes for ESB-type beers can call for up to 20% crystal malt. The darker the crystal, the more likelihood of it contributing astringency to the beer. I've used 25% of dark crystal 120L to use up some very old stock and although I wouldn't brew it again, it went down ok.
By how much did you increase the IBUs?
I reckon your beer'll be ok and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Oneflewover said:

I reckon you'll make beer. It might not be the best beer you've ever had but I would definitely see it through now. Wort always tastes overly sweet and bitter in my experience. Onwards and upwards!

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Thanks - you're much more optimistic than me at this stage!!

Drunkula said:

So presuming there was 900g of maris otter then it's now 35% crystal? Please for the love of god post regular tastings of this beer. You could brew up another 3.6kg of Maris otter to blend with it but I want to see how this beast manifests.

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Haha! Did think of brewing up some extra maris otter, but my brew pot is a tiny 15l effort, so not really practical...

Took an OG reading this morning, which read 1.064, so maybe 1.065 adjusted for temperature at 20c. OG target before my blooper was 1.044 - so decided to dilute with a kettle of boiled water, which will hopefully bring the OG back down towards the initial target...I'll check again later and find out, I suppose...

An Ankoù said:

Recipes for ESB-type beers can call for up to 20% crystal malt. The darker the crystal, the more likelihood of it contributing astringency to the beer. I've used 25% of dark crystal 120L to use up some very old stock and although I wouldn't brew it again, it went down ok.
By how much did you increase the IBUs?
I reckon your beer'll be ok and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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IBUs were originally around 32, so about mid point for the style - the extra crystals in the grist brought it down to about 19, so adjusted the hop additions to bring it back up to about 35. Diluted the wort with about 1.5 litres of boiling water this morning, following an OG reading of 1.065 - after doing that, Brewers Friends shows the OG comes back down towards my target based on the original recipe, and the IBUs back down to 31.

So, hopefully you'll be right and I'll be pleasantly surprised - will take a little while to find out though.

The wort should be back down to pitching temperature when I get home this evening, so will take another OG reading and then pitch (with very much crossed fingers!)

RichHall said:

IBUs were originally around 32, so about mid point for the style - the extra crystals in the grist brought it down to about 19, so adjusted the hop additions to bring it back up to about 35.

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There's something not quite right here. Whatever hop schedule you program into Brewer's Friend for 35 ibus at a target gravity of 1044, when corrected to 1064 gives a drop in utilisation equivalent to 4 or 5 IBUs, not 13. Unless I've missed a trick here. What were your hops, their alpha acids, boil times and quantities?.
Your beer should still be fine though,

RichHall said:

my brew pot is a tiny 15l effort, so not really practical...

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Mine's 14 litres and one day you'll find you can get away with murder and do a full 23 litres, but I'd wait a while and get some brews in because it was a long while before I just decided what the hell, I'm trying a concentrated wort.

Good luck, kid.

An Ankoù said:

There's something not quite right here. Whatever hop schedule you program into Brewer's Friend for 35 ibus at a target gravity of 1044, when corrected to 1064 gives a drop in utilisation equivalent to 4 or 5 IBUs, not 13. Unless I've missed a trick here. What were your hops, their alpha acids, boil times and quantities?.
Your beer should still be fine though,

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Hi - here's a link to the original recipe, after it had been updated with the grist error: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/844878/bitter-mistake-to-make-

And here's how it's ended up, after adjusting the hops for the boil, and then diluting down a bit with extra water this morning: https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/843594/-2-best-bitter

It's all a bit of a minefield for me at the moment - lots of info to try and take in and make sense of, made especially worse by bodging the mash with the extra Crystals!

Let me know if things don't seem right with the recipes, would be good to understand for future efforts...

Cheers

Drunkula said:

Mine's 14 litres and one day you'll find you can get away with murder and do a full 23 litres, but I'd wait a while and get some brews in because it was a long while before I just decided what the hell, I'm trying a concentrated wort.

Good luck, kid.

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Thanks, I think you're right though - I'll concentrate on trying to get the basics right for now - like adding the right grain quantities!

You might he stumbling on a happy accident here, might be great beer, wait see.

Just finished the last bottle of "Old Fashioned Porter" which I made with 25% dark crystal malt. Why I called it that, I have no idea as there are no darker malts in there! Certainly wouldn't dream of trying to sell it, but it has brought joy to my soul.
Most beers, it seems to me, taste good to excellent, no matter how dodgy their beginnings, after three months in the bottle.
So I agree with Justin, and I'm horrified that the poor lad has got nothing to drink and no immediate prospects.

I'm just drinking a beer that I thought was destined for the drain but I decided to let it run it's course. It's not my best, but is drinkable. I'd let it run & just learn from it.