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macrobrewer

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I was bottling my last batch while brewing my current batch. Apparently I had too much on my mind because I ended up with 6 gallons in my carboy instead of the intended 5. I have a 10 gallon brew kettle and a 7.5 gallon carboy, and I didn't notice I added an extra gallon of water until it was too late (in the carboy).
The recipe I was trying to brew was the Black IPA extract kit from Northern Brewer:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/BlackIPA.pdf
SPECIALTY GRAIN
-- 0.25 lbs Dehusked Carafa III
-- 0.25 lbs Chocolate Malt
-- 0.5 lbs Briess Caramel 80
FERMENTABLES
-- 3.15 lbs Dark malt syrup (60 min)
-- 6 lbs Dark malt syrup late addition (15 min)
-- 1 lb Corn Sugar late addition (0 min)
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
-- 1 oz Summit (60 min)
-- 1 oz Chinook (15 min)
-- 1 oz Centennial (10 min)
-- 1 oz Cascade (5 min)
-- 1 oz Centennial (0 min)
-- 1 oz Cascade (dry hop)
YEAST
-- DRY YEAST ALTERNATIVE: SAFALE US-05. Optimum
temp: 59-75° F.

I'm looking for help on how to salvage this. It has a high intended OG (1.075), so I'm trying to keep it there or higher. I'm worried about it tasting watered down. I'm thinking I can probably make a "minibrew" with some DME and some hops and then add that to the fermenter. This may be an opportunity for me to make what would have been a good beer even better. Any idea on how how I would go about this?

Thanks!
 
You could probably boil some water and add DME to it and top off the fermenter, but you are gonna have to do some math to make sure you are hitting your numbers spot on. Honestly, I'd let it ride and accept that while it isn't exactly what you are after, it'll still be beer.

Edit: didn't see you were ready to bottle. In that case, bottle it up and enjoy the beer.
 
Thanks for the reply. To clarify, I just brewed the black IPA today, and I was bottling a different batch at the same time. Would software like Brew Smith help me figure out the right amounts?
 
you can add DME/LME or sugar to the fermenter

i wouldn't bother with a full mini brew, just boil dme or sugar with a small amount of water to bring you back towards your original OG, you can add now or once fermentation is started, just make sure you avoid splashing if you add it once fermentation has started
 
Thanks. I think I'll try adding some boiled DME now and add extra cascade hops in the secondary. Any idea how to calculate how much DME to add to one gallon of water to reach a gravity of 1.075?
 
I wouldn't add 1 gallon of water since you are already at a higher than planned volume, use the smallest volume of water that you can to dissolve/briefly boil the dme

what was your measured OG?
 
I didn't measure the OG, unfortunately. I found in Palmer's book that one pound of DME in one gallon of water will yield a gravity of 1.040. I wanted about double that and then I had to account for the water I used to boil with, so I ended up adding about 3 pounds of DME. That is overkill, but it should be fine. I also plan on adding some extra hops when I dry hop. I'll update this thread in a few months to let people know how it turned out.
 
If you didn't measure the OG, I'd leave it alone. The more you mess with it, the more likely you are to make it worse.
 
I finally got around to bottling yesterday (been busy). I did add the DME but I never did dry hop. I tasted it when bottling and it tasted pretty good, and I'm thinking it will end up as one of my favorite beers I have brewed so far. I'll know for sure in a few weeks.
 
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