Very low gravity didnt crush grains...crap..

Well im in the 4th day of a cream ale i brewed on tues. By wednesday night i had a good steady fermentation. I took a hydrometer test right after i pitched the yeast, and it was at about 1.014 i thought crap thats low. I also did a PM and forgot to crush the grains . Should i make a small DME mix and toss it on in. Floccuation has slowed alot, but its still there.

I will assume this was a Partial Mash recipe.

1. You should take your hydro readings before pitching the yeast.
2. If you dont crush your grains you won't get much of the convertible starches out, which will lead to very poor efficiency, hence the low OG. 1.014 is real low.
3. Yes you could boil up some DME and add it to increase the gravity. DME will give you 40 - 43 points per pound per gallon.
4. Do you mean Fermentation has slowed?
5. Flocculation is when the yeast fall out of suspension and settle to the bottom of the fermenter.

Post your recipe, and your process and maybe we could help you better.

1. I know i fell asleep while waiting for wort to cool so i was out of it.
2. Yeah i F'd up haha. will it i still get the flavours?
3. How much DME? its a 5 gal batch.
4. Yes fermentation has slowed.

What was your recipe and procedure? 1.014 doesn't really add up.

1 pound pale 2 row
1 pound munich
1 pound flaked barley
1/2 oats
1 pound honey malt
1/2 pound belgium candi sugar
1 mutons LME

I don't think that would give you a whole lot, even if the grains were properly crushed. Where did you get the recipe from? Was it a 5-gallon batch?

yeah 5 gallon and i kind of made it myself

Darkstashcrashes said:

1 mutons LME

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One pound? One 6 pound can?

Darkstashcrashes said:

yeah 5 gallon and i kind of made it myself

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If you want to make your own recipes, I highly recommend software like BrewSmith. It lets you plug in your ingredients and it gives you your predicted OG, FG, ABV, IBU's and the whole nine yards. I think you needed a bit more extract to bring that recipe up.

If you just brewed it, I'd go ahead and boil some more DME and add it. If it's been a few days, then I wouldn't bother and just chalk this up as a learning experience. You'll have a very light, very low alcohol beer, but you can drink lots of it at a sitting.

VTBrewer said:

One pound? One 6 pound can?

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I didn't catch that. I assumed you meant 1 pound since that's what you were listing the others as. If it was one can, then you probably have a higher OG than you read and you just didn't get it mixed well with your top up water.

ok thanks how much DME should i mix up? and will it still taste ok? and yes one 3.3 pound can of LME.

I think you should let it be then. With 3.3 LME and no grain crush your OG was probably low, but I agree with ChesreCat...you probably didn't mix well before you took your reading and its not as low as you think.

Darkstashcrashes said:

ok thanks how much DME should i mix up? and will it still taste ok? and yes one 3.3 pound can of LME.

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In that case, I'd leave it be. It'll still be a session beer, but your hydrometer reading was likely wrong. It's hard to get the boiled wort and top up water to mix up. You probably got your sample from the thin, water stuff on top.

I'd have probably used two cans with that recipe, but at this point it might just be better to let it be. It won't be as thin and weak as you first thought.

You can plug your ingredients in here and get an idea of what it actually is:
The Beer Recipator 2.2

Thanks guys, phew!
I will def use that thanks!