Wit Men Can't Jump FAIL

[jbeukelman]

I tried to brew the mentioned recipe (as found in BS2) over the last weekend.  I got some strange results and was wondering if anyone else has tried to make this brew, and if so what their results were. 

It's been years since I brewed a batch, so I'm re-learning a bunch so please bear with me. 

- I double and triple checked all measurements and ingredients
- After steeping the specialty grains, I removed them, and added hops, extract and corn sugar and brought to a boil.
- Boiled 60 mins
- Added orange and coriander at last 5 mins. 

After the wort was cool and before pitching the yeast, I took a hydrometer reading.  1.070!  No where near the ballpark for this recipe and not within a respectable margin of error (recipe says 1.048).  Also, I noticed that the color is much darker than a Wit should be (borderline amber in color)

I can only think of catestrophic errors which could account for being so far off.  (pound instead of an ounce, dark extract instead of light, etc)  What on earth could I have screwed up?

This is day 4 in the primary fermenter, and there are still bubbles every 6-8 seconds in the airlock.  Though maybe not a Wit, whatever is fermenting in my closet could still be drinkable.  *shrug*

Ideas?  Thanks!

 

[jomebrew]

were you supposed to dilute?

 

[jbeukelman]

You'll have to forgive me, I'm not sure what you mean by "dilute".  Can you explain?

 

[jomebrew]

Some extract recipes are concentrated and call for some filtered water that has been boiled and cooled to be added to the kettle at the end to achieve the fermentation volume and gravity.  It does not sound like it form your message as you didn't mention you seemed to have too little wort in the fermenter. 

Other reasons
You could have put too much extract in
You could have added too much sugar
You could have measured wrong
You could have a very, very bad hydrometer

Please let us know how it turns out.  I am curious if the you experience any of the possible off flavors.

- joe

 

[MaltLicker]

- After steeping the specialty grains, I removed them, and added hops, extract and corn sugar and brought to a boil.

Did recipe call for corn sugar in boil?  Or was that the bottle-priming sugar?  (Yes, I did that once.) 

Extract is very consistent in the PPG it provides, so it seems the water volume is off, and possibly that extra sugar (if not part of boil ingredients).

 

[jbeukelman]

I had the same thought about the hydrometer.  I took a reading with plain, room temp, tap water.  Came very close to 1.000. 

I also had the same thought about the corn sugar.  The recipe didn't explicitly say how long to boil it for (I boiled it for 60 mins).  I just made that assumption.  But perhaps the author meant to use it for bottling. 

Or maybe the quantites listed were for a 10 gallon batch and he forgot to change the default from 5 to 10.  I dunno.  I think the lesson learned here is to more thoroughly scrutinize any recipe I find on the Internet

Thanks everyone for the advice. 

--cheers

 

[charlzm]

So, I'm dying to know how the beer turned out.  This was exactly the beer I was going to brew next!

 

[jbeukelman]

So, I'm dying to know how the beer turned out.  This was exactly the beer I was going to brew next!

It was my bad actually. *ahem* *cough* *ahem* I managed to take the gravity reading from the kettle right BEFORE I poured it into the fermenter and topped it off with water.  So of course the reading was going to be high. 

Otherwise the beer turned out great.  It's a little darker than a Wit should be, but I'd brew this again. 

--cheers

 

[Three_Cats_Brewery]

Darker color is typical of using extract. It will almost always be darker than equivalent AG beer, and will get darker the older the extract is.

Glad the beer turned out. Welcome back to brewing after such a long break!

 

[kam111]

love wheat beer,  1st all grain batch this wknd. wish me luck 8)

 

[ankhseeker]

So, I'm dying to know how the beer turned out.  This was exactly the beer I was going to brew next!

It was my bad actually. *ahem* *cough* *ahem* I managed to take the gravity reading from the kettle right BEFORE I poured it into the fermenter and topped it off with water.  So of course the reading was going to be high. 

Otherwise the beer turned out great.  It's a little darker than a Wit should be, but I'd brew this again. 

--cheers

Sorry for jumping in here, but this is the beer that I am also having problems with.  One of my questions got answered above about the color (extract kit). My og was way lower than called for.  Actually ALL the values (bs2 style vs. actual) were off.  this was a MB kit.  So to ask a stupid question...  To lower the OG before pitching yeast is to add water and visa versa (boil it longer?) to raise it?  Starting was 1.050 and fg was 1.017 creating a 4.32 % beer.  Can't wait till it comes out of the keg.