Chiller leaked...need a recovery plan.

vthokiedsp

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Had a 1.063 gravity wort that dropped to 1.040 after I found out (too late) that my immersion chiller leaked about 2 gallons of water into my kettle during cooling.

I'm thinking about pulling off a gallon or so and replacing it with a juice or something to bring the gravity reading up. Any suggestions on how to do those calculations? It would be a balance of volume of juice and gravity of juice. Should I let ferment completely and then add juice to basically ferment a second time?

Or do I go the straight sugar route? Juice may not raise the gravity enough.

Yes, I realize my hop and malt profile will be out of balance.

Thanks.
 
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What kind of juice? I think I’d be inclined to add dry or liquid malt extract if I wanted to raise the gravity. I would just add it now instead of later, and be done with it. There is a calculator on this site that addresses gravity changes.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/

You didn’t ask about other options to consider, but I think I’d just leave it as is and brew it again another time. It’s possible that it picked up an infection with the extra water.
 
If you're feeding your IC through a garden hose, it'll probably taste like drinking out of the hose. Boiling would take care of chances of infection, but not sure of the hose flavor.
 
Open to any and all suggestions.

Yes, it was garden hose water.

It was recovered yeast so if it's a waste, at least I didn't blow the cost of the yeast. Had a lot of hops though.
 
What kind of juice? I think I’d be inclined to add dry or liquid malt extract if I wanted to raise the gravity. I would just add it now instead of later, and be done with it. There is a calculator on this site that addresses gravity changes.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/dilution-and-boiloff-gravity-calculator/

You didn’t ask about other options to consider, but I think I’d just leave it as is and brew it again another time. It’s possible that it picked up an infection with the extra water.

I was looking at that calculator but it doesn't do what I'd need. I'd be adding a high gravity additive to an existing gravity to reach a target gravity. In other words, another variable to the calculator would be needed.

Found this..."
If your gravity is too low, the calculation for the amount of dry extract to add is:

  • Calculate the difference between your target and actual OG, then multiply by 1000. For example if you were targeting 1.056, but only hit 1.048 this would give us (1.056-1.048) x 1000 = 8 points
  • Now we need to raise our gravity by 8 points which means we need to add 8 points/gallon of dry malt extract (DME) equivalent. Assuming a 5 gallon batch size, we need a total of 40 points of DME.
  • DME has a potential of 1.046 which means it contributes 46 points/lb added, so we simply take the 40 points and divide it by 46 to get 0.9 lbs of DME to add."
I don't have any dme on hand. Earliest I can get some is Monday. That'll be right in the middle of active fermentation. Any issues with adding it then?
 
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I don’t think there’d be issues with adding it at that time. Just make sure you have good headspace in your fermenter.
 
I don’t think there’d be issues with adding it at that time. Just make sure you have good headspace in your fermenter.

Thanks. Will do. This is my plan so far...make a gallon of dme wort with a hop addition proportional to the dilution of my IBU (guessing around 20%). Pull a gallon from my carboy, then add new dme mixture. Just need to be careful with adding the new gallon and avoiding oxidation. A little may be scrubbed out by new fermentation.
 
Don’t splash when you add the new mixture. You’ll be fine. Better to siphon it in if you can.
 
I'm still a rookie at this (but my beer is good) could you not just boil it again down to the OG you want? Removes infection.
As far as the hose goes.....you have spent the money already on grain, hops and yeast.....it cost nothing but time to ferment now. (I use a food safe water hose)
 
I'm still a rookie at this (but my beer is good) could you not just boil it again down to the OG you want? Removes infection.
As far as the hose goes.....you have spent the money already on grain, hops and yeast.....it cost nothing but time to ferment now. (I use a food safe water hose)

By the time I realized I was 2 gallons heavy, I already had 4 gallons on the yeast cake. I looked at the carboy, back at the kettle, back at the carboy and was like "shit". 4 in the carboy, 3 still in the kettle and I only had 5.25 when I pulled from the heat. Magic!
 
You pitch your yeast before the transfer to the fermenter is complete?
 
You pitch your yeast before the transfer to the fermenter is complete?

Yes. Yesterday I was packaging a brown ale from a carboy to keg so I decided to brew a pale and pour it directly over the yeast cake from the brown.

Even when I don't reuse a fresh yeast cake, I usually add about a gallon or two of cooled wort through a filter cloth to my carboy, pitch yeast, swirl and aerate vigorously, and then finish off the wort transfer. Get great oxygen entrainment and usually have a rockstar start to fermentation in a few hours. Especially since I started using imperial yeasts.
 
Let er buck, she'll be right. I wouldn't even worry about it personally, maybe throw some sugar in but you should still end up around 4% afterward which is enough to be tasty and a lesson for you.

How did you leak so much water with an IC? Did the tubing have a hole in it? I would assume you'd notice if the connections were leaking that heavily. (Though I have chilled while pretty drunk before so it's a possibility)
 
Let er buck, she'll be right. I wouldn't even worry about it personally, maybe throw some sugar in but you should still end up around 4% afterward which is enough to be tasty and a lesson for you.

How did you leak so much water with an IC? Did the tubing have a hole in it? I would assume you'd notice if the connections were leaking that heavily. (Though I have chilled while pretty drunk before so it's a possibility)

Def drinking so that didnt help. I plugged the ic discharge afterwards to see what was up and it was both tube to copper connections leaking. Don't know how they loosened that much. Usually I do everything outside and the copper bends are outside the kettle. I took it inside this time bc it was hot as balls outside and guess I didn't think twice about having those bends inside the pot. Idiot move.

Oh and I was racking another beer to a keg so I was split between two tasks.
 

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