Can I add malt just before kegging?

This is my third post (and my third batch). I'm addicted to your good advice. You guys are enablers.

RE: My Partial Mash SNPA clone attempt - I've just racked it into the secondary and took a sample to taste/measure. It has a good flavor, but it's thin and not quite hoppy enough.

I added 1oz. whole Cascade hops to the carboy to dryhop, so I'm not worried about the hop flavor. The thinness got me thinking however, so I dug out my notes and I see that the recipe predicts an OG of 1.060, whereas I managed to produce only 1.026!

The gravity after primary ferm. is 1.016. Can I add DME to bring this up a bit? What's the best way to do this? Will adding malto-dextrine help?

Can anything be done? Not that I'm worried - it's just small beer.

Thanks for helping!

- d

THE RECIPE (5gal.)
Partial mash:
1 lb. Rahr 2-row
1 lb. Briess Carapils
.5 lb. Simpsons Med. Crystal

6 lb. pale LME

1oz. Perle (6.0) - boil 25 min
1oz. Perle (6.0) - boil 35 min
1oz. Cascade at flameout

yeast cultured from bottle of SNPA

That doesn't seem possible. With just the six LB of LME you should have come out higher than that on you OG. I wouldn't add any DME before kegging, unless you are planning on letting it ferment again. I would check your hydrometer, with straight water to see if it is right. should read 1.000. Dry hopping is only going ot give you aroma, it won't really do anything for the flavor. your flavor comes from the hops added between 20 and 5 minutes. I would just go with it and see how it comes out if it sucks, then make a new one if it's good then drink up.

Cheers and good luck.

looks like it's calibrated right, though I suppose it is possible I read / wrote the wrong result on brew day.

I'll keg it, wait a month, and hope for Sierra Nevada 'lite.' Maybe a good lawnmower beer.

I think you didn't stir enough. As W3.1 says, the LME puts your OG much higher.

I'd be willign to bet you took a hydro reading and didn't adjust for temperature.

1.026 cannot be possible.

I vote for not taking temperature into account. The 6 lbs of LME by itself puts you at 1.042. Don't do anything to the beer. Keg it, wait for it to age a couple weeks then carb and try it out. Carbonation also adds mouthfeel to a beer.

I did adjust for temp. when reading the hydrometer but stir? I didn't stir at all. I just dumped the cool wort into the fermenter and topped off.

When should the stirring happen? Is it possible I took a diluted sample off the top while all the heavy malty goodness was hiding in the bottom?

Yes, that's what you did. The sugary, boiled wort is heavier than the top-off water, so the sample you took is more watery than the wort as a whole. But, the yeast found all the sugars, and it's fine, I'm sure.

The other issue is that it's really, REALLY hard to judge whether a beer is watery or not before it's carbed. Flat beer tastes watery. It'll impact the perceived bitterness a bit, too.