Help!

[integersmirk]

After a greatly-successful period brewing from kits, I read a book by Charie Papazian which gave me the confidence to try without the kit. So I headed down to a local brewery and got hold of hops, speciality grains, and a starter yeast, and got somemalt extract.
After 3 hours of careful measuring, boiling, straining, I finally had a wort in the barrel with the yeast.
Soon, I noticed a heavy sediment in the bottom of the barrel, which makes me think my straining let a lot of stuff through, and made me worry the yeast sedimentation will result in a deposit level at the bottom of the barrel which will be higher than the tap level.
The next day, everything was bubbling normally, but the smell in the brew cupboard was very different to normal.
The next day it hit me... I forgot to adjust the quantity of hops in the brew to account for the strength of my hops (I used super-alpha in the same quantity as the fuggles in the recipe). This means that effectively I have double-hopped my wort, and I have no idea what to do now.
Suggestions so far are:
1.Leave it and carry on, hope for the best
2. Add sugar!
3. Go through a process to take what's in one barrel as the basis for 2, by doubling the volume and just adding more malt.

My ingredients/process was:
1/2 lB crystal malt
1/4 Black malt
1/4 Caramalt
All slowly brought to boil, grains removed just prior to boiling (took about an hour)
Added 3kgs of malt extract
2ozs (instead of 1!) Super alpha hops
Boiled for 45minutes
Added 1/2 Oz D-saaz hops for aroma
Boiled for 5 minutes
Strained into barrel, pitched yeast at 24degrees.

So, what would you do?!

I am hoping not to have to throw it away and start again, but if it's definitely a disaster I don't want to go through all the bottling time for nothing.

Your advice greatly appreciated :)

[jt]

So I think we've established that it's going to be ok, but it won't be what you would expect.

I still reckon you should start planning # 2 now, maybe do the recipe as it was intended ?

Suggestion #1 would be to get a lower gravity and bigger volume for your boil.
So boil as much as you can, but only boil half the quantity of extract (add the balance for the last 5 minutes of the boil

Can you boil more than the five litres or so or do you need a bigger pot ?

[integersmirk]

My pot is 8litres I think. I haven't read all the book I am using but it did not talk about boiling huge amounts making a difference, at least not yet. Should I buy a bigger one?

What's the deal with boiling bigger quantities? Don't you increase the risk of something else populating the wort whilst you wait for it to cool enough to pitch the yeast?

And how do I learn as much as you guys without asking you every little thing for the next few years?!

[jt]

Just keep asking !

Your hop utilisation improves with a lower gravity - you need to use less hops.
It's also better to boil as much of your wort as posssible.

Read all the book and also read www.howtobrew.com

cheers, jt

[JR]

Old Charlie Papazian's book should answer most of your questions.

If you are on a budget the wherehouse sell (sold?) 10L (or 12L I forget) pots for $18. Rather thin and low quality but it can do the job.

[HerrSchnapps]

They still sell 17L pots for $20, it's all I've been using for my extract (+speciality grain) brews. It is thin, but I've had no problems yet, as long as you take it off the element before adding in extract. I would like a larger pot (~30L) in order to boil up enough for a full 23L, though I have thought about using two 17L pots with say 13L (for evaporation) in each, with the exact same hopping schedule, amount of extract etc

[jt]

I've got one. I used it to boil about 120 extract & grain brews and it's still heating my mash & sparge water
Go the Red Shed cheapies !

[Stu McKinlay]

Go the Red Shed cheapies !
So long as it is not electronic... I've purchased 3 electronic items from there and all have been returned within weeks.
They are good with cash refunds, I must say.