need help boosting OG

Hello,

I made a 1.5 gallon batch of oatmeal stout, i screwed it up pretty bad though. my girlfriend and i were originally planning on doing a .5 gallon batch so we got an oatmeal stout and divided all the ingredients by .1 to compensate for ingredient volumes.

before we started brewing i found a 1 gallon jug so we decided to double our recipe and turn half of it into a coffee oatmeal stout. stupid of us because we were brewing more than double our .5 gallons.

long story short, the gravity turned out to be 1.028 when it should have been around the 1.056 mark. here is the recipe we used:


1.8lbs 2row malt
6oz flaked oatmeal
3.2oz crystal malt *60
1.6oz chocolate malt
1.6oz roasted barley

all this was for a 1.5 gallon batch.

now my question, is there any way to boost up the sugar content, like can i boil some LME and throw it in? if so how much would it take to get it up to the OG of 1.056?

One half gallon all grain batches? You lost me there.

Seriously, yes, just boil up some DME and add it in. The amount will depend on the volume of your batch (sorry, I couldn't figure that out from your post).

we were planning on doing a .5 gallon batch (we have a 0.5 gallon bottle) to test a recipe, but i found another 1 gallon fermenter, so we brewed up a 1.5 gallon batch. we used 2 fermenters, 0.5 gallon and 1 gallon. (coffee went into one)

we only put in enough ingredients for a 1 gallon batch (accidently) because we doubled our recipe instead of tripling it.

beersmith says our estimated OG for our recipe should be 1.045. (with our incorrect grain calculations)
the recipe had an OG of 1.056
i got a hydrometer reading of 1.028

im going to put in Pale LME.... would 8-10 ounces be ok for 1.5 gallons?

16 oz of DME will yeild 40 points in 1 gallon.

so 8 oz in 1.5 gallons = 15 pts.

1.028 + .015 = 1.043 = < target

so you need 24 oz / 1.5 gal = 26-30 points (extracts vary)

it's late. im drunk. this makes senxe to me.

OK, I think I understand. You were shooting for 1.056 OG in a 1.5 gal batch.

If that is correct, then your 1.5 gals that you brewed were only 1.028 OG. You need to boost it to 1.056.

1.056 - 1.028 = 28 gravity units in 1.5 gals, or 42 total gravity units. One pound of DME will yield about 40 - 44 points. So you need to add at least a pound. (If you add more water, you will need slightly more -- and you might consider steeping more specialty grains to compensate for the dilution).

If you're increasing the malt, though, you need to increase the hops or you'll have a very sweet beer.

I don't really have an answer on how to do this, now that you've got such a large volume already. You could boil the same amount of hops in the original recipe in the DME/water, but you won't get good hops utilization from that.

Of course, then your recipe is different, because your % of oatmeal and specialty grains is messed up, too.

At this point, I'd just leave it be and try again. We're only talking about 1.5 gallons and it'll probably still be drinkable, though very weak, beer. Just let it go and try again with some of your leftover ingredients, IMO.

Thanks guys... i didnt take the rest of the ingredients into consideration... all things to think about...

i believe the oatmeal should be good, we overshot it because we were trying to get a really massive body to it. it had a nice flavor to it before pitching the yeast.
what if i put table sugar or dextrose in it to raise alcohol content? would this affect flavor as much...

Chombo said:

Thanks guys... i didnt take the rest of the ingredients into consideration... all things to think about...

i believe the oatmeal should be good, we overshot it because we were trying to get a really massive body to it. it had a nice flavor to it before pitching the yeast.
what if i put table sugar or dextrose in it to raise alcohol content? would this affect flavor as much...

Click to expand...

Honestly, I think the suggestion to start again from scratch was the best one. That's one of the big advantages of experimenting with small batches, right? You don't have to feel bad about pitching it if it didn't work. If you aren't willing to pitch it, you might as well be brewing 5 gal test batches....

Chombo said:

Thanks guys... i didnt take the rest of the ingredients into consideration... all things to think about...

i believe the oatmeal should be good, we overshot it because we were trying to get a really massive body to it. it had a nice flavor to it before pitching the yeast.
what if i put table sugar or dextrose in it to raise alcohol content? would this affect flavor as much...

Click to expand...

Adding sugar will boost the alcohol, but reduce the body making it seem more watery.

FlyGuy said:

Honestly, I think the suggestion to start again from scratch was the best one. That's one of the big advantages of experimenting with small batches, right? You don't have to feel bad about pitching it if it didn't work. If you aren't willing to pitch it, you might as well be brewing 5 gal test batches....

Click to expand...

very true, in this case have decided that i am going to let it do its thing, and wait it out, if it tastes good, then great, if not ill take it as a learning experience.

im going to put a LME/table sugar into one fermenter though so i can compare the textures and mouthfeel when both are finished. i think this might give me a better understanding of what it will add, since they are both basically the same batch in the 1 and 0.5 jugs...

ChshreCat said:

Adding sugar will boost the alcohol, but reduce the body making it seem more watery.

Click to expand...

thanks chshrecat, good to know!




im so close to bottling your double chocolate stout, and totally stoked, went into secondary last friday!

Chombo said:

thanks chshrecat, good to know!




im so close to bottling your double chocolate stout, and totally stoked, went into secondary last friday!

Click to expand...

Sweet. I haven't brewed since summer because of house hunting/buying/crap. Just moved in over the weekend and I wanna brew another batch of that again. I think I have two bottles left, tucked away somewhere...