I recently brewed a red ale and the original gravity reading came out low1.030). Foolishly I went ahead with fermentation and now have a finished beer that is ridiculously low in final gravity. My question is can I do anything to fix this now that fermentation is complete? Can I add extract and re-heat, and then re-pitch the yeast? If so, what is the best way to do this? Any suggestions are appreciated.
Extremely low final gravity. How can I bring it up?
- Thread starter ciacheflv
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WillPall
Well-Known Member
I don't really know what you mean by "fix." I wouldn't mess with it. Without knowing your exact FG, I would say you are within the low end of the style for ABV. Just drink it and enjoy it and start your next batch.
user 22118
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How you fix it is learn by your mistakes, rebrew immediately and throw a "I was foolish" party in order to drink that beer.
I mean that honestly. I brewed my first three batches prior to drinking my first batch and they each were progressively better because it is the process that you need to get down more than the recipes or style.
Edit: Damnit, beat me to it!
I mean that honestly. I brewed my first three batches prior to drinking my first batch and they each were progressively better because it is the process that you need to get down more than the recipes or style.
Edit: Damnit, beat me to it!
Scooby_Brew
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't mess with it now, just enjoy your "light" version of red ale. You never know, it just may turned out to be a fantastic tasting beer.
Rushis
Well-Known Member
What exactly is a "ridiculously low" final gravity?
So you made a more alcoholic light red. Kudos to you, I've been trying to drop the FG on my red ale down to the 1.008-1.003 range for awhile.
It's still beer. Carb it and drink it.
So you made a more alcoholic light red. Kudos to you, I've been trying to drop the FG on my red ale down to the 1.008-1.003 range for awhile.
It's still beer. Carb it and drink it.
WillPall
Well-Known Member
Oh, and who knows, if your OG and FG were both lower than expected maybe your hydrometer is not calibrated correctly, or your temps were off when you took the reading. Anyway, like Scooby_Brew says (awesome name btw), you've probably just created a good Red Ale Lite.
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't do anything to try to change the ABV, but if it's too light in body and you just can't stand it, you can add a little maltodextrin at bottling time. That's all I'd do to it. Other than that, go with what the other wisemen have said. Enjoy it as it is and brew another.
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
I think your hydrometer is broken!
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
That's what I was thinking. I'll have to look at my hydrometer and see if it goes that low!
The hydrometer is fine. The beer is literally like hoppy water, no malt flavor whatsoever
Yeah that FG is way too low to be correct. I think even with a serious infection you're not going to get an FG that low.
WillPall
Well-Known Member
No.... It isn't.... Don't do it.
Edit: Okay, that was harsh. For the sake of not losing a (new?) brewer, either add the maltodextrin as has been suggested, or just leave it and drink it. It won't be watery after it has carbonated. Boiling will remove all the alcohol that you already have in there, leaving you with even more watery beer, and an ABV of about zero. I would seriously check that hydrometer if you haven't already. It should be 1.000 in water at its stated temp. If your hydro is correct, I would seriously consider not drinking that beer. 0.9 is indication of a serious infection. Seriously.
Edit: Okay, that was harsh. For the sake of not losing a (new?) brewer, either add the maltodextrin as has been suggested, or just leave it and drink it. It won't be watery after it has carbonated. Boiling will remove all the alcohol that you already have in there, leaving you with even more watery beer, and an ABV of about zero. I would seriously check that hydrometer if you haven't already. It should be 1.000 in water at its stated temp. If your hydro is correct, I would seriously consider not drinking that beer. 0.9 is indication of a serious infection. Seriously.
rod
beer -just brew it
i don't have the brewing software to tell you how much extract to add - but if your brews undrinkable now - i would boil up some malt extract in the minimum amount of water to prevent scorching - cool and add it to your existing carboy of beer.
like willpall said do not boil the stuff already fermented out.
like willpall said do not boil the stuff already fermented out.
carnevoodoo
Well-Known Member
I have a beer at home that is at .997 and the only way it got there is from a super high gravity that got a wild yeast infusion that took it that low. If your beer is at .9, something went wrong. You need quite a bit of alcohol to get it to that point, and I don't see it being possible with what you describe.
Scooby_Brew
Well-Known Member
I don't think so.
So you have way off-balanced beer. I don't think you can change it, but I may have an idea that may save your beer. It is called blending. Your beer is way over hoped, low OG. So brew another Red Ale, but this one under-hoped, but high OG. In 4 weeks, you mixed them both half-n-half, prime it or whatever, and you good to go.
This may be quite an interesting experiment, please let us know how you progress with it.
As the others said, it's not possible to have a FG of .900. Not possible. Hydrometers don't even go that low. Usually .990 is the lowest they go, and only my wines get there. Beer rarely goes below about 1.004 at the lowest. The lowest beer I ever had was 1.007.
Check the hydrometer in water, making sure the hydrometer floats without touching the sides, and check the SG again. It's definitely NOT .900.
So, I know you want advice on fixing the beer, but we can't give you good advice because of the skewed results.
If you post your recipe, I can look at it and see what can be added to make the beer better for you. Sometimes it's an easy fix just by seeing what's already in there to work with.
Check the hydrometer in water, making sure the hydrometer floats without touching the sides, and check the SG again. It's definitely NOT .900.
So, I know you want advice on fixing the beer, but we can't give you good advice because of the skewed results.
If you post your recipe, I can look at it and see what can be added to make the beer better for you. Sometimes it's an easy fix just by seeing what's already in there to work with.
carnevoodoo
Well-Known Member
Unfermentable sugar. Blending with another beer.
Scooby_Brew
Well-Known Member
I missed this one vital peace of info: FG 0.9 is impossible without an infection. I'm afraid these guys are right, Ciacheflv. Sorry, dude.
rod
beer -just brew it
post the recipe - yoopers watching now and if your beer can be fixed she will be able to help
Not without knowing the recipe that you've made.
To give you an analogy, I ask you to help me fix my car. But I won't tell you what kind of car it is, or how old it is, or what it's doing. Just that it won't run. Well, that's what's going on here. I understand the beer isn't right. but without knowing what's going on, I can't really help.
Beer is pretty easy, so I'm sure we can get you fixed up. I just need a hint of which direction to go.
KingBrianI
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't waste your time yoop. This guy doesn't seem to want to listen.
torque2k
Well-Known Member
Wow. I'm agreeing with KingBrianI. Not one of the ideas or suggestions has been thanked, only poo-poo'ed. Sad.
BioBeing
Well-Known Member
66 IBU is way out of style for an irish red as well. 17-28 according to BJCP.
Have you bottled/kegged this yet? Carbonation and aging will change the taste.
How did you end with such a low OG? Was this extract or all grain? If extract did you add top up water? I did a few extract, and the OG was off as I hadn't mixed the top up well.
What reading does fresh water give you, and at what temperature are you measuring?
You could boil up some extract in a small volume of water, cool and add. Stir the yeast back up and see what happens. Or blend. Or add maltodextrine. Or just drink. It is up to you really.
As I stated earlier, I appreciate all of your suggestions. For those who don't do well with my blunt, to the point questions, I apologize. This isn't the first forum in wich I have asked this question and the "its beer just drink it" answer doesn't help me learn how to correct this issue if it can in fact be corrected. As far as the gravity goes, the beer finished at 1.009. Again I apologize for the confusion. It's much lighter than I would like and I simply wanted to know if anyone had experimented with adding more extract and re-pitching a finished beer.
Synovia
Well-Known Member
If hes adding sugar or anything its not. Most of my apfelwein finishes up around there.
Edit: Misread, thought he was saying .990, and not .900.
.900 isn't impossible though. Alchohol has an SG of about .78. So his beer would have to be about 50% alchohol...IE wrong.
HairyDogBrewing
Well-Known Member
I think the original question steered us down the wrong path.
You want to sweeten a beer that is too bitter, right?
If so, I'll second the malto dextrine and also suggest adding lactose aka milk sugar.
It should be available online or at your LHBS.
If a pound of lactose doesn't fix it, consider dumping if it's undrinkable.
You're better off starting a new batch rather than waste too much effort on a bad one.
You want to sweeten a beer that is too bitter, right?
If so, I'll second the malto dextrine and also suggest adding lactose aka milk sugar.
It should be available online or at your LHBS.
If a pound of lactose doesn't fix it, consider dumping if it's undrinkable.
You're better off starting a new batch rather than waste too much effort on a bad one.
WillPall
Well-Known Member
You question isn't blunt. It just doesn't give us the information we need to answer it.
It can't, in fact, be corrected. It can be improved, but we've already told you how to do that and you haven't listened.
It has been done before, as rod has pointed out, but boiling an already fermented beer isn't going to help anything:
BioBeing
Well-Known Member
It is not that you are blunt, it is that you are pointedly ignoring our questions!! But that said, I'll be blunt back: You did not give us enough information to help you.
1.009 is very different to 0.900, which your previous post stated! So here, you gave us wrong information. See how hard that makes it to help you?
If you say "add more extract", I assume that means you used extract originally. Is this correct? If it is correct, then there is basically no way you could have gotten a low OG, unless you did not add as much DME as you were supposed to have. My point is that if this is the case, then your low READING (not the same thing as a low OG) could be due to incomplete mixing of top up water with the boiled extract. I have done this myself. Others on here have posted about this. It happens all the time. If this is in fact what you have done, then your OG is probably OK, and the taste of the beer is due to something else.
Do you follow me so far?
Now, if you made an all-grain beer, then the low OG could be real. This is a different issue, and could be gone into in another thread.
So, assuming extract, and your OG is actually OK, you are aware that you way over hopped for the style anyway, right? This alone will make you beer taste ... wait for it... hoppy. You haven't posted your recipe, so we still do not know what hops you added, or when...
Next: what state is the beer in now? All you say is "finished". If you are tasting beer right out of the fermentor, then you are tasting warm, green, flat beer. However, you could add some extract to it at this point if you wish, stir up the yeast. The yeast will wake back up. But by doing this, you will change the overall balance of the beer (if you just add DME, and no steeping grains, you will dilute out the colour/taste contributions they gave in the first place). Which is why some people have said to blend it, as then you can make a new wort with the correct properties for the style, just underhop it this time!
Or bottle it, and let it carb and condition. This will change the taste considerably. But you will have a very hoppy irish red.
If your beer is already bottled, I'd say trying to save this now is more trouble than its worth. Just let it condition for a year or two to let the hops mellow out.
ETA - you said red ale, which I read as Irish Red. So not sure exactly what style you were shooting for. Still, 66 IBU is quite high. Hops will mellow with time. If you are drinking it young (less than at least 3 weeks in the bottle/keg) then you are not tasting the final product.
annasdadhockey
Well-Known Member
Great reply, but I wouldn't try aging a 1.030ish beer for a year or two. Even assuming the hydrometer is off by 15 points, that sort of beer is made for drinking fairly fresh (no matter how hoppy it is).
TL
ChshreCat
Well-Known Member
What's annoying people is that the OP asks a question, many people answer "no" and he keeps re-asking the question. If all he wants is someone to say "yes" then he should just go ahead and do whatever the hell he wants.
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