First time brewer here. Me and my girlfriend received a home brew kit for Christmas. The recipe called for 2 lbs of liquid malt extract and three lbs of dry malt extract. Along with hop pellets and a little irish moss. after putting the wort into the fermentation bucket and a week later I came to realize I mistook the 3 lbs of dry malt for 3 lbs of dextrose (corn sugar).also bubbling has ceased. Any suggestions or ideas on what we should do? are we going to get bottle bombs? Should we ferment longer? Please help!
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What did you actually use in your recipe? The dextrose or the dry malt extract?– djsCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 1:49
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Good question, I assumed he used dextrose in place of DME, but then again kits with liquid extract do often have you add dextrose as the remainder of the fermentables so it could easily have been the other way around.– Franklin P CombsCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 2:11
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Taking that back. Question's title says all– Franklin P CombsCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 2:53
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I think the bigger problem is that you mistook three pounds of dextrose for three pounds of DME ;-)– Marcel BesixdouzeCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 3:08
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I used the dextrose in place of the dme (as Franklin said) that the recipe called for in my case was not encluded in the kit we recieved.– bearpawCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 3:54
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1 Answer
No need to worry about bottle bombs as long as you let it finish fermenting. With so much sugar, the yeast probably lacked a lot of nutrients it would have otherwise normally gotten from malt, and it may taste a bit 'cidery' or 'champagne-y'. If you had caught it right away I'd probably have recommended adding some extra yeast nutrient to the fermenter to help minimize the stress on the yeast.
If it's only been a week, it's not too late to add some/half/all of the DME if you have room in the fermenter (just dissolve in as little water as possible, boil, cool and add) to try and add some more malt flavor to the beer, though it will dilute the hop character of the finished product. If you do this, you'll have to let this new sugar ferment for, say, another week. Do note that this will, proportional to how much you add, significantly increase the alcohol percentage of your beer, but might be worth it for the benefits to flavor. That's really up to you.
Otherwise, there's no harm to just bottling, drinking and chalking it up to experience.
answered Feb 11, 2015 at 1:49
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thank you for the help and suggestions! not too discouraged have been my first batch but definitely will make the next one that much better! ;) one more question. I do have another package of liquid malt extract can I add that in place of adding the dry extract? (brew store isn't too close to home) or should I make the trip just for the dry malt?– bearpawCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 4:02
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Thanks for bearing with me by the way! Extremely appreciative!– bearpawCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 4:03
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Glad to help. Sure you could use the liquid in place of extra DME. Depending on how big the container of LME is, what color it is, whether it's hopped or not, etc., you might not want to add the whole thing. I would taste the beer you already have before doing anything, though. It might be mostly sugar, but it could be surprisingly refreshing. Pull a sample (sanitized turkey basters or wine thiefs work great), chill it if you want, and try to imagine a bunch of carbonation in it. If it's drinkable, I'd save the malt extract for your next batch. Commented Feb 11, 2015 at 13:46
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Cool. I'll give it a shot. I'll comment an update in a day or So. Thanks!– bearpawCommented Feb 11, 2015 at 17:25