A few questions about first extract brew

[mshergold]

Hi all. I brewed my first extract yesterday using a 5 gallon Burco boiler and have a few questions. The recipe I used was for Charlie Papazian's Palace Bitter, tweeked by Paul at Barley Bottom to:

2.00 kg Light Malt Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 85.47 %
0.34 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 14.53 %
15.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] (90 min) Hops 12.8 IBU
10.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (90 min) Hops 6.6 IBU
7.00 gm Fuggles [4.50 %] (15 min) Hops 2.2 IBU
15.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] (15 min) Hops 6.0 IBU
7.00 gm Fuggles [5.80 %] (0 min) Hops -
14.00 gm Goldings, East Kent [5.80 %] (0 min) Hops -

Est Original Gravity: 1.042 SG Measured Original Gravity: 1.042 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity: 1.010 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.02 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 4.16 %
Bitterness: 27.6 IBU

Now, the method (which I didn't have) I managed to put together from some posts on the forum, but read nothing about when to top up. I was vaguely aware when I boiled my water the night before that I would need to top up due to evaporation, but when I was brewing, I forgot and ended up with about 10 litres instead of 19. I had only four gallons in the five gallon Burco and the rest in a pan on the stove as I'd read about boil over when adding the hops. I topped it back up to four gallons at some stage (probably quite early) but can't remember when. Can anyone tell when when I should have topped up to get the full 19 litres?

Hydrometer readings are not my strong point (perhaps I should have photographed the reading and attached them to the post), but I'm sure I got 1.054 at 34c which when corrected (adding 4.68) gives me 1.059. Can anyone give me an opinion on whether the beer might be any good and if not if there's anything I can do to improve it (I suspect not)?

Thanks

Mark

[RichardG]

Don't worry, I'm sure it'll be fine. Leave it to do its thing for a couple of weeks; don't mess with it now. BTW, how did you calculate your estimated OG?

[mshergold]

Hi there. Thanks for the reassurance. I used this calculator:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipa ... l?10963337

Mark