After primary adjustments

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
Post Reply
BlackBriar

After primary adjustments

Post by BlackBriar » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:22 pm

First post! although I've been reading stuff here for years now.

Last weekend brewed a saison with a target OG of 1.050 at 82% (I think) efficiency. Only I measured about 69% efficiency going into the boil. Then forgot to turn the heat down and evaporated almost twice the amount of wort with an hour long vigorous boil. Which knocked my OG back on target 1.050. Syphoned 19.5 litres into primary instead of target 23 litres.

My first question is, would it be best to dilute back to 23 litres at the end? the difference to ABV is only 0.5%ish which is no big deal but I'm concerned flavours might be overpowering as they've been concentrated. Once accidentally overfilled a 23l beer kit by 1 litre and it tasted like dishwater.

Second question, my last hop addition was 15 min 14g fuggle with it being a vigorous boil will these hops have added any aroma? my understanding is that hop oils are converted until wort temp drops below 79c. I use a standard copper wort chiller takes roughly 30 min drop to 20c

Thanks for any help with this.

RobWalker

Re: After primary adjustments

Post by RobWalker » Fri May 08, 2015 4:46 pm

Welcome!

If you cooled fast, yes you'll get flavour and aroma from a 15 min addition. if you no chill, you'll just get bitterness.

Be careful with adding water, again for the dishwater reason. More water = watering down = might taste thin and dry. I make your new OG at 23L 1.042, so assuming you get roughly 1.002 FG (saison yeast ferments like crazy) then you're looking at 6.3% and 5.2%. It will be thinner bodied at those ABVs compared to british ales, for example, so do what you please in that sense - I suggest giving it a taste after the ferment, see if it's gonna be too intense, if so then add your water.

TheSumOfAllBeers
Lost in an Alcoholic Haze
Posts: 677
Joined: Tue May 05, 2015 11:21 am

Re: After primary adjustments

Post by TheSumOfAllBeers » Fri May 08, 2015 5:19 pm

You will get aroma from late additions if you no chill, but alpha acids have a lot more time to isomerise.

Add 20m to all late hop additions for IBU calculation.

Rick_UK

Re: After primary adjustments

Post by Rick_UK » Tue May 12, 2015 8:08 am

You can liquor back before or after fermentation without issue, this is common practice in commercial breweries to increase the capacity of FVs. Best to boil your water first though.

A good time is when you rack it for bottling or transfer to a keg, stir it gently to avoid oxidation oxidation.

Rick

User avatar
Jocky
Even further under the Table
Posts: 2738
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2011 6:50 pm
Location: Epsom, Surrey, UK

Re: After primary adjustments

Post by Jocky » Tue May 12, 2015 10:24 am

BlackBriar wrote:First post! although I've been reading stuff here for years now.

Last weekend brewed a saison with a target OG of 1.050 at 82% (I think) efficiency. Only I measured about 69% efficiency going into the boil. Then forgot to turn the heat down and evaporated almost twice the amount of wort with an hour long vigorous boil. Which knocked my OG back on target 1.050. Syphoned 19.5 litres into primary instead of target 23 litres.

My first question is, would it be best to dilute back to 23 litres at the end? the difference to ABV is only 0.5%ish which is no big deal but I'm concerned flavours might be overpowering as they've been concentrated. Once accidentally overfilled a 23l beer kit by 1 litre and it tasted like dishwater.

Second question, my last hop addition was 15 min 14g fuggle with it being a vigorous boil will these hops have added any aroma? my understanding is that hop oils are converted until wort temp drops below 79c. I use a standard copper wort chiller takes roughly 30 min drop to 20c

Thanks for any help with this.
I honestly wouldn't bother topping up now - if you've hit your gravity then you're good, even with a lesser volume, and you're only likely to spoil it by adding in untreated water now. FYI I seriously doubt your kit was spoiled by overfilling by 1 litre of water - you were only diluting fermentables by 2-3 points, not enough to turn a good beer into dish water.

The late fuggles may add a tiny bit of aroma, but really not a lot as they're not a particularly aromatic hop, and you've not used a lot. I used 30g of Goldings 10 minutes from the end of my most recent 1.050 bitter, and that has barely perceptible hop aroma, but I bet if I took it away I'd be missing something.
Ingredients: Water, Barley, Hops, Yeast, Seaweed, Blood, Sweat, The swim bladder of a sturgeon, My enemies tears, Scenes of mild peril, An otter's handbag and Riboflavin.

BlackBriar

Re: After primary adjustments

Post by BlackBriar » Tue May 12, 2015 7:33 pm

Thanks for the help guys. Think I'll go for the safe option and not top up. And next brew day I'll pay more attention.

Post Reply