elgee

Recipes 

The other day I made my 3rd AG batch and I believe I got a bad crush as my original gravity ended up being 1.050 (should have been 1.068) so before I pitched the yeast, I boiled 3/4 lb of corn sugar with 2 cups of water to try to fix the abv if anything. After I tested the OG after I added the corn sugar, I did not notice a change in the gravity reading. I am wondering what that extra 3/4 lb of corn sugar and water mix will do for me and I have also been wondering if I add a cup of DME if that will change the flavor and mess up the batch (IPA)? The beer has been fermenting for 2 days now, and not sure if I should just leave it alone? I would like to get the abv to at least 5.5% so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

adhomebrew10

Recipes 

It is hard to say what 3/4 lb corn sugar would do for you because I don't know your volume... Assuming you had 5.25g wort, then you should have noticed a .0065 increase in gravity. If it is already fermenting, I would just leave it. It is what it is at this point, and I'm sure it will be fantastic.

What was your expected/actual efficiency? It looks like you dropped about 10% efficiency or so from what you expected?

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-adhomebrew10
Traditions Brewing Company
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elgee

Recipes 

My efficiency was expected to be 72% and ended up at 53%.

Pie_Man

Recipes 

At this point, I would just leave it alone.

Going forward, I would lower your efficiency expectations to about 65% until you get the hang of it. I'd also keep some DME handy so you can adjust your gravity if you miss your numbers on the next brew.

elgee

Recipes 

What is he best way to make sure I am at my gravity, such as, how would I determine when to add DME and how much would be sufficient. I don't want to add too much, so I don't get any change in flavor.

Pie_Man

Recipes 

This is determined by taking a pre-boil gravity reading. I pull some wort out of the kettle, cool it a little bit, measure the gravity, then return it the boil. Brewing software does the math for you, but here's an example, sorry there's math involved:

Let's say you boil-off 1 gallon per hour and you're doing a 60 minute boil. Your recipe is for a 5 gallon 1.050 beer. 1.050 = 50 gravity point per gallons, and if you're batch size is 5 gallons, that's 250 total gravity points (50 X 5).

Pre-boil, you have 6 gallons of wort, the wort should be at about 1.042 pre-boil (250 total gravity points / pre-boil volume, then adjusted to the 1.xxx format). The dissolved sugars remain during the boil, but the volume of liquid decreases. If your pre-boil volume is lower, say 1.032, that's 32 x 6 gallons = 192 total gravity points, but you needed 250, so you add some DME.

DME has about 43 gravity point per pound (the manufacturer will list this number). To solve for the amount of DME needed: (250-192) / 43 = about 1.3 pounds of DME.

I hope this makes sense. I would highly recommend the book Designing Great Beers by Ray Daniels. The books discusses many topics like this, as well as advice for specific recipe styles. It's a great brewing resource.

elgee

Recipes 

Thanks for the advice, I'll check out that book.