Oops---a little too much DME

After starting my batch, I discovered an error of adding about 12 oz too much DME. Are there any compensations to make early in the primary? Or later in the secondary? Total ended up with about 3 lbs DME and 6 LME along with 2lbs specialty grains. Any thoughts?

You have two options, you can water it down in Primary. Work out how much water you need to add to get it down to your original expected OG. Boil the water, let it cool, add it to your fermenter and gently stir with a sanitised spoon. If you are usin a secondary you could do the same, but just place the water in secondary and siphon the beer on top (this will make sure it mixes well).

The second option is to water the beer down before bottling or kegging. However the risk in this is that you will oxygenate the beer by having to stir the water in well to make sure it is mixed.

I would go with the first option (primary or secondary) and just make sure you sanitise well.

Of course the alternative is just to be happy with the stronger beer

i wouldnt mess with it. it should be fine, hust a little strong.

+1 - leave it and go with what you have. I personally wouldn't add it once the yeast have started fermenting. Do you know what gravity you started with compared to what you wanted? You could then calculate how much you would have added at the start and add it later. I'm not sure on this but I think I might want to add well boiled and cooled water at the bottling bucket if the ferment has already started. Boiled to drive off as much oxygen as possible and sanatize it. Calculate out how much water you should have started off with to get the desired starting gravity and go from there.

Anyone with more experience have an opinion on that method? I'm really not sure...

blueray said:

After starting my batch, I discovered an error of adding about 12 oz too much DME. Are there any compensations to make early in the primary? Or later in the secondary? Total ended up with about 3 lbs DME and 6 LME along with 2lbs specialty grains. Any thoughts?

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Your OG is about 10% higher than you wanted. The beer will be a touch stronger than you planned on, but it's not going to be a hugely dramatic difference.

I'd leave it alone.

+whatever on leaving it alone. It won't make that big of a difference. A little stronger, a touch maltier. What style of beer was it?

I also vote for leaving it alone, you probably won't notice anything wrong. I've added about 0.8 lbs extra DME to 5.2 by accident and never even remembered by the time it was in the bottle, and I've added an extra pound of honey to another when the LHBS gave me 3 lbs instead of 2 by accident. The honey I could tell gave it a little more kick, but it was still basically the same beer (I had made it before with 2 lbs).

I agree with everyone here saying to leave it alone and be happy with the higher gravity beer. But, if you really want to add water to cut it down a little, do it earlier, rather than later. Boil the amount of water needed for about 15 minutes, cool, and pour into the fermenter (primary, preferably). Any added O2 during the pouring will help build up the yeast. When doing it later, the yeast aren't using O2, and any added O2 can cause oxidation. So pouring would not be recommended at that point. Syphoning may work, but why chance ruining your beer. I recommend leaving it alone.

Thanks all. I think tampering with it now is the greater risk. There is roaring fermentation now at about 36 hours (actually was visible, albeit slow at about 3 hours after pitching the starter). So, leaving it alone seems the more prudent choice at this point.
I sincerely appreciate everyone's suggestions.

Another vote for leave it alone. How is too much alcohol a bad thing?

Don't sweat it! It's still going to be beer and that's ultimately the goal, right?