Brewed This Today, Have Question

I brewed this today but have a question that I'll ask after I post the recipe...

5.0 lbs Light/Pale Malt Extract
0.5 lbs Chocolate Malt
0.5 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt 40L
0.25 lbs Roasted Barley

1.5 oz Cascade hops @ 60 mins
1.0 oz Willamette hops @ 30 mins
1.0 oz Willamette hops @ 5 mins

Wyeast American Ale II (1272)

OG 1.043
FG 1.011
(4.3% A.B.V)
39.9 IBU (I know, I wanted it bitter)
5 gallon boil
5 gallon batch (added about 3/4 gallon water after wort cooled)

Okay, so... I made a mistake when buying ingredients and only bought 5 lbs of the Light/Pale Malt Extract, I planned on having 6 lbs. I also wanted 60L instead of 40L Crystal Malt but my LHBS didn't have it in stock. And finally, I wanted Special Roast but ended up with Roasted Barley from my LHBS.

When the wort was finished I tasted it and it definitely seemed like it needed more fermentables so I'm curious if there is something I can do maybe in a secondary to help with that. I wanted a bitter Brown but I think it could definitely use something else to balance out the hops a little more.

It was suggested to me by my friend who I brew with to maybe make a syrup with 1 lb brown sugar and stick it in a secondary for a while to see if that would help.

Any suggestions? Should I just leave it alone? It's my first recipe so I don't have high expectations but I'd like for it to be as good as it can be!

Thanks ahead of time for any help!

Robbie

I'd roll as is. You can go with the syrup but wouldn't go over a pound. Just keep in mind it's not going to add body, just alcohol. Might also cut the brown sugar with some straight up cane sugar. You could also make a concentrate with malt extract.

I wouldn't add any sugar. I made the mistake of adding ~10% raw sugar to a batch when I realized I didn't have enough DME and it turned out very thin. (of course, there may have been other issues that lead to its watery finish, but the sugar certainly did not help)

Also, the roasted barley is in no way a substitute for Special Roast. Special roast is much lighter (40-40L vs 500L for Roasted barley) and has a much different flavor (toasty/bicuity flavor vs bitter/coffee/chocolate). So, this batch is going to be more roasty/bitter and less malty than anticipated.

+1 on the note above that adding sugar will make the beer *thinner* not more malty to balance the hops. It will boost the alcohol by volume, of course, but won't help with the balance you're looking for.

Thank you guys so much for the feedback. It looks like the best thing to do would be to just leave it as is and see what happens. I guess next time if I were to forget 1lb of extract I'd just brew 4 gallons instead of 5.

If anyone else reads this and has any suggestions to make it better even after my mistakes I would appreciate the input!

Robbie