Just set up a wort to brew using a can of Morgans Mulloys Irish Stout and a bag of LHBS 'Stout Enhancer' which is 500g DDME, 250g LDME and 250g Corn Syrup. Mixed it up and deliberately filled the water to the 21L mark. Weighed the fermenter and it came out at 23kg exactly, knock 1.5kg off for the fermenter thats 21.5L of wort. SG came out at 1040. I always like to taste the wort and this is really watery, nothing like a stout kind of flavour. Is it normal for a stout to be a bit watery and it will come good with fermentation? I was thinking of grabbing another kit can to dump in there to bring it back up in flavour and SG.
Anyone got a bit of help for me?
Ben
Watery Wort - Morgans Irish Stout
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Trough Lolly
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Re: Watery Wort - Morgans Irish Stout
G'day Ben,
It's still probably a tad too early to tell how the beer will turn out - but if it's really unsatisfactory - and I think the OG is a bit low for my liking, you could easily add some more malt and a balance that with some additional hops.
Now this isn't terribly scientific but should do the trick...
Grab a kilo of amber DME or LME, and bring it to the boil in 3L of water. Add some hops (Northdown would be nice - as would Goldings) and boil for at least 20 minutes (alternatively, you could boil a 4L solution for at least 30 minutes). It's not about bittering, but you want the hops to give the malt a bit of flavour. Around 15g should be plenty. You can boil it vigorously, but don't allow it to scorch the base of the pot or that'll stuff up your flavour profile - keep a close eye on the boiling wort as you don't want to scorch this at all. This will be a pretty high gravity boil, but that's ok - we want to do that in order to bring up the overall gravity of the original wort. Chill it after the boil and splash pour this into the fermenter and hopefully you'll have a better beer.
It's a bit hit and miss - by all means use promash etc if you want to more accurately predict what will happen, but at the end of the day, what we're trying to do here is add some concentrated, but boiled and chilled wort which admittedly will increase the volume but also hopefully add some gravity and desirable flavour to the final product.
Cheers,
TL
It's still probably a tad too early to tell how the beer will turn out - but if it's really unsatisfactory - and I think the OG is a bit low for my liking, you could easily add some more malt and a balance that with some additional hops.
Now this isn't terribly scientific but should do the trick...
Grab a kilo of amber DME or LME, and bring it to the boil in 3L of water. Add some hops (Northdown would be nice - as would Goldings) and boil for at least 20 minutes (alternatively, you could boil a 4L solution for at least 30 minutes). It's not about bittering, but you want the hops to give the malt a bit of flavour. Around 15g should be plenty. You can boil it vigorously, but don't allow it to scorch the base of the pot or that'll stuff up your flavour profile - keep a close eye on the boiling wort as you don't want to scorch this at all. This will be a pretty high gravity boil, but that's ok - we want to do that in order to bring up the overall gravity of the original wort. Chill it after the boil and splash pour this into the fermenter and hopefully you'll have a better beer.
It's a bit hit and miss - by all means use promash etc if you want to more accurately predict what will happen, but at the end of the day, what we're trying to do here is add some concentrated, but boiled and chilled wort which admittedly will increase the volume but also hopefully add some gravity and desirable flavour to the final product.
Cheers,
TL
Re: Watery Wort - Morgans Irish Stout
Sweet thanks for that. I'm not confident with the boiling stuff yet so will just mix a can with a couple of litres of boiled water and splash in.
Ben
Ben
Re: Watery Wort - Morgans Irish Stout
You weigh your fermenter and wort?
A beer in the hand is worth two in George Bush...
"They say beer will make me dumb. It are go good with pizza"
Psychostick
"They say beer will make me dumb. It are go good with pizza"
Psychostick
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Trough Lolly
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Re: Watery Wort - Morgans Irish Stout
Don't you have any cookware? It's not rocket science, just add the malt to water and bring gently to a boil, tossing in some hops. By all means you can add a kit and some boiling water, but that's expensive compared to a kilo or two of malt and a small amount of hops. Anyway, the important point to note is that any additions to the existing wort should be balanced - ie, boiled wort with hops added - or you risk making a beer that's under or over hopped and you'll be disappointed with the result.Ben78 wrote:Sweet thanks for that. I'm not confident with the boiling stuff yet so will just mix a can with a couple of litres of boiled water and splash in.
Ben
Next time you do a batch, leave the premixed powder at the brewshop and use some malt extract and hops of your choice - it won't be long before you upgrade to malt extract brewing or dare I say, all grain......I did!
Good luck.
Cheers,
TL