Low OG Help

So I new it would be low OG....As I What I could do with my extra runnings of my first batch.

I want to beef it up real quick before pitching yeast. So the question is what can I use. It's at 5.5 Gallons and 1.026ish.

I have Honey, table sugar, priming sugar, 1lb of DME.

I'd like to get it to 1.040 if possible.

Thanks

Also I'm assuming I have to boil each of the items either way right?

It's also a little on high side so could be like 6 gallons so I could boil it down some too I guess wasn't sure if I could re-boil or not.....

i would add a little but over 2# of honey which will bump you to about 1.040. What was the recipe? You could add the DME also if you had enough steeping grains and go for sort of a braggot.

brewagentjay said:

It's also a little on high side so could be like 6 gallons so I could boil it down some too I guess wasn't sure if I could re-boil or not.....

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you can boil it down further to increase the gravity but even if you boil vigorously for the next hour assuming its at 6 gallons, you should onluy hit 1.032ish acording to beersmith. I would go for something different and try your luck- i mean what do you really have to lose. Or do an english mild type beer

It really depends on the recipe. Sometimes lengthening a boil is a great idea, but if you've already added flavor and/or finishing hops, lenthening the boil also increases the bittering while decreasing the flavor and aroma. It's not a problem at all in a beer like a stout, but could be a very big issue in a pale ale. I like to boil my runnings to what I need for my preboil volume (generally 6.25 gallons) and then start my timer for the 60 minute hops additions.

Adding more fermentables may be a good idea to bring up your OG. The only thing I'd consider adding to a 1.040 beer would be malt extract, though. One pound would give you about 9 points. You don't have to boil it, beyond just dissolving it. You could pull out some of the wort you already have and add your extract and bring it to a boil in a second pot, just to dissolve the extract. Then cool and add to the fermenter.

Yooper where's my fav avatar?

I need Beer Smith or something.....

It was runnings from an IPA beer.... So It was a experiment to begin with but I did waste a lot time in sparge and boil so I'd like to try to use it.

It was bittered with all hop bags from first boil, then at boil I added 1 oz warrior, then for flavor at 15 minutes I added 1oz cascade, then for aroma I added 1 oz cascade at 5 minute mark........

It's at 1.26ish right now @ 6 gallons or just under.
So if I my 1lb of DME get's me 9 points then I'm at 1.34ish (question do I add it directly it wort and stir to disolve as I hate to add more water)

Then I add 5oz of priming sugar...where would I be at?

that should bump you another ~1.5 points.....5 oz isnt much

So that would put me at 1.36ish or 1.37ish.....

I need 3 more points.........

How about some honey........ say 8oz

it will ferment completly out with little or no flavor contribution. You may end up with a thin beer since your bumping up the gravity without any unfermentables.....just be aware. What was the recipe you used?

I was trying something. I had lot of of left overs once I had gotten my IPA pre-boil target. So I decided to give it a shot.

So I ran out about 2.5 gallons and decided to batch sparge once more and got 7 gallons.

So I then used the hop bags from IPA boil and added them to mix.

Once it started to boil I removed the hop bags.......(didn't think they'd get me much)
I bittered with 1 oz warrior @ 60min
I flavored with 1 oz cascade @ 15min
I aroma with 1 oz cascade @ 5 min

Figured it would be a light light IPA or really a good lawn mowing beer...

I can't recall the grains off hand but it was 13.5 lbs of extra pale stuff.

I new the OG would be low and it was just a little too low so now I'm thinking what can I do to kick it up a bit..........

Just a hugh experiment with all my left over stuff including a dry packet of ale yeast.

oops I forgot to do the caculation for sample temp....so my current OG is 1.028....

So 9 points get's me 1.037ish with just the DME....

So what about 3 points?

Option A priming sugar
Option B Honey

What you think?

Last Question if I use 8 oz of honey do I need to boil it?

Assuming on the priming sugar and DME I'm not going to boil just mix in........

Did you add top off water?
If so, you could be getting a low reading because the top-off water is not mixed with the wort.

-a.

I mixed it no top off water.....It's a bit of a experiment sort of to see if I can get two beers with one grain bill.

So here is what I went with and there is no turning back. Also I downloaded beer smith but couldn't figure out how to get the information I needed.

So with out further delay:

1) Collected 1 gallons to 1.5 gallons of wort
2) Heated to just below a boil
3) Added 8oz of warm Honey
4) Added 1lb of Light DME
5) Added 12oz of Brown Sugar
6) Heated and Stired for 5 minutes
7) Poured back into Primary & Stirred

Now I'm waiting for temp to cool off a bit to take new reading........

Gonna have to change the name a bit since the additions but we'll see how she turns out...........

My thoughs are to improve the process so no additions are needed....So I will order just a few more pounds of grains, few extra oz of hops, & a dry yeast package.

This will allow me to make my bigger or planned beer and make a 5 gallon batch of a lighter beer........

What are your thoughts?

Thinking of dry hopping with some more cascade on this perhaps..........

As I have probably killed some of my hoppiness.......

So with the hydro in place I appear to end up with 1.038 to 1.039ish.......

Dang close to what I was aiming for.....

well see how low it goes. You may end up with a very thin beer but it could be good

Yeah it'll be just under 4% and I wanted it to be light beer....I hope not two thin....

What do you think about small amount of dry hops?

Thanks for all your help on this, I just tested the batch after 30 days in primary and we are at 1.006 giving me a 4.4 to 4.5 % beer from the left over runnings of my ipa so I got 10 gallons of brew for price of 5 gallons........yeah next time I try this perhaps I'll add a few extra pounds of grains to ensure I get a nice OG. If I can get one to end up 1.040 range it will work as proven with this one.

So now I got an IPA & an IPA Lite........