Low gravity fixes

I brewed a California common the other day and I missed my starting gravity by about .03. I know that many people don't worry a lot about that, but I had really formulated the recipe to hit a certain IBU/OG ratio. Plus, if I would have missed it any more than that, I'd have left the style limits (not a huge deal, but I'd rather brew to the style until I get my recipe down.)

I think the problem must have been poor efficiency on my partial mash. I used 1.3 pounds of Munich and did a mini mash in a Coleman 2 gallon cooler. I tossed the Munich in with 1.5 pounds of 2-row (figured that might help the conversion) and held the temp at 154 for about 30 minutes. Then I cycled the wort a few times and then sparged with a gallon of water at 170. This was my first mini mash.

Long story short, when I took my SG I was lower than my recipe estimate. By this time it was really late at night and I had to get some sleep before work so I pitched my yeast starter in and hit the sack.

For future reference, what do you all do in this situation. I guess I could have brough the volume up to 4.5 gallons and checked my gravity, then slowly added more water until I hit my target (in this case made a 4.7 gallon batch instead of a 5 gallon batch). The other option is boiling up some more LME/DME and adding that. I didn't have any extra malt around, but is it common practice in this situation to add another ~1/3 pound of LME/DME to boost up the gravity?

Assuming you meant 0.003, that translates to 0.4% ABV. There is absolutely no way you or anyone else will be able to detect that small a change. In terms of IBU's, most people have trouble spotting a difference of 10 IBU.

Some people top up, I don't. You could boil up the DME and add it any time before racking, if you really want to.

Sorry, I did mean .003. I know this seems like splitting hairs numericaly, but when you look at the style guides for a Ca common the gravity range runs from 1.048-1.054. My .003 miss is half the entire style range. Also, my IBU/SG ratio shifts from 0.765 to 0.814. I'm not as worried about the change in bitterness as I am the loss of "maltiness". Am I way overthinking this?

In the range is in the range.
0.765 to 0.814 You cannot detect this change, trust me.

You're overconcerned, I think. If you really want to change your gravity, add a little extract (I'm not gonna do the calculation for you, as it's probably not worthwhile). However, changing your gravity this way will do nothing to affect IBUs - that was set during the boil and can only be changed by adding a "hop tea" consisting of a bit of water boiled with some hops.

RDWHAHB!

I don't need a calculation, I've got BeerTools and the calcs are already done. I'm not worried about the IBU's they're where I wanted them. I'm more worried about an unbalanced beer as far as IBU to malt. If anything I'd like to decrease my IBU's not increase them with a hop tea. I'm sure it will taste fine, I'm just trying to get to a point where what I plan on paper (or in my case on BeerTools) actually translates to what I get in the keg.

Maybe I'll pitch another batch of the same recipe (with special attention toe hitting my pre-planned SG) on the yeast cake after I rack this batch off and do a side by side comparison for the sake of science.

Reckoning said:

I don't need a calculation, I've got BeerTools and the calcs are already done.

Click to expand...

The calc I was referring to is the one to get required extract volume to add in order to achieve your target SG. Again, you seem a bit overconcerned - .003 is quite small. RDWHAHB!

BTW, you're experiment sounds valid, but just keep in mind that there are a lot of variables that prevent the average (or even above-average) homebrewer from achieving consistency from one batch to the next. You may find that you like or dislike the following batch for a reason completely independent of SG (like vigorous fermentation due to pitching on the yeast cake).

Yeah I know, I guess my devil is in the details.

The multiple changing variables occured to me last night. Not only will the yeast be a second generation and likely a bigger pitch, my fridge won't support another keg to go on draft right away unless I kick out a porter. The second batch would have to be conditioned quite a bit longer.

Oh well, I guess I'll find out in a few weeks if its balanced or not.

Thanks!

Reckoning said:

Sorry, I did mean .003. I know this seems like splitting hairs numericaly, but when you look at the style guides for a Ca common the gravity range runs from 1.048-1.054. My .003 miss is half the entire style range. Also, my IBU/SG ratio shifts from 0.765 to 0.814. I'm not as worried about the change in bitterness as I am the loss of "maltiness". Am I way overthinking this?

Click to expand...

Let me point out something else... Your target IBU's were calculated using computer software. They are almost certainly *wrong*. Keep in mind there are several formulas for IBU calculations, each of which will give a different answer. Variations in your water, malt extracts, altitude, malt extracts and who knows what else will cause shifts in your IBU's. Adding extract a few minutes early/late or adding hops a few minutes off can shift your IBU's. And most importantly, the hops themselves have a range of IBU's that goes beyond the AA% listed on the package.

In other words, you have no way of knowing what the actual IBU's of your beer are unless you have some sophisticated lab equipment to measure it, so there is really no point in worrying that .003 is going to throw off the balance...

You all are probably right in that there won't be a great difference in the flavor of the beer, but I'm willing to bet that little differences are what separate pretty good beer from darn fine beer. I think that it is easy to disregard small changes in gravity just because they occur three places after a decimal point. But think of it this way, pretty much all gravity differences are occuring in the last two places of the 1.0XX numbers we use. A low grav beer like a pale ale is in the 1.030 range and an extremely high grav brew like barley wine is only around 1.080. My seemingly inconsequential .003 represents 6% of that spectrum. I guess I tend to drop the first 2 digits and look entirely at the last 2 numbers. I'm very likely way overanalyzing this, but hey ... its hard to forget my college organic chemistry classes.

Anyway, at least I have a good reason to brew more California common! I pledge to spend my life testing this beer in the name of science.

Reckoning said:

Anyway, at least I have a good reason to brew more California common! I pledge to spend my life testing this beer in the name of science.

Click to expand...

Well, at least your life now has purpose and direction. Brew on!

Lorena