Add DME to fermenting brew?

I made an IPA (partial mash) and figured out that I missed my OG by 16 points. Should have been 1.064. I got 1.048. Figured out this was because I did not add enough DME. Only added 3lbs instead of 5 or 6.

I would like to correct this. One member mentioned the possibilty of adding more DME to the primary while fermenting, but didn't explain in detail.

The brew has been fermenting in a 6.5 gallon pail for about 72 hours. Bubbling has slowed down since yesterday, the high point. Don't usually watch bubbles closely, but i had my nose on the airlock for like 5 minutes last night.

What are the steps to add additional DME to an already fermenting brew?

While I have never done this, I have read that what you will do is boil in a small volume of water to sterilize the mixture, maybe 5-10 minutes at a good boil. Cool it like your wort, and add it in.

Experts? What say ye?

I say you are correct. Boil the DME in water to sterilize and then cool and add to wort.

Should I shake up the fermenter again after that? Or stir it with a spoon?

It is already fermenting, so the gravity is decreasing. Maybe I should take a reading as it sits now, and additional readings until I reach the 16 points I missed?

So let's say its at 1.024 right now because it has been fermenting for 72 hours. I would want to get it to 1.040 to make up the 16 points I missed?

How much water is necessary for about 2 lbs or so of DME? I would like to use as little as possible I suppose so I don't go too far over 5 gallons.

I wouldn't be terribly concerned about missing the Gravity. I have yet to hit one spot on for one reason or another, having a higher OG will yield a little more alcohol so long as it ferments out to your prescribed final gravity. Even if it doesn't its not a big deal. Either way its still beer.

Use enough water to totally dissolve the DME (this part is up to you, make a guess) and don't burn it!

why not just let it do its thing and then you can just make another batch? I would think that missing the gravity would be reason enough to get it out of the primary and get to brewing again.

You will have great success either way

Cheers

Yah alright. Screw it. Lesson learned. Try again soon. Probably better not to mess around with it at this point. Still curious if anyone has ever done this successfully.

I know your other thread drifted off on a bit of a tangent for a post or two, but it would really help if you confine your posts and questions about the same topic in the same thread.
This will really help others help you as they will have all of the info from the start. Just because you have a few responses doesn't mean that is all the help you are going to get. Many people, especially the regulars hail from different parts of the globe, meaning different time zones. If they see this thread, but miss your first thread showing your recipe, then you may not get the best help because they won't have all of the pertinent information.

I am going to question whether you should in fact just let the batch be. Missing the OG by 0.16 is a lot, and this being an IPA, I'd worry about balance of hops vs. malt. That being said, I can't answer your questions about how to best add DME.

Sorry Bull8042. It seemed to me that it warranted a new post with a new title. The cause of the missed OG had been narrowed down. Maybe I should just chill out and learn some patience.

My original thread can be found here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/missed-og-16-points-97754/

Thanks for everyones help! I sincerely appreciate it.

I agree with Mc^^. Thats a lot to miss by. Its orders of magnitude. Add the DME, just make sure that the lid is off the fermenter for as short a time as possible. Yank lid, dump new wort, lid back on. Seriously, it'll be ok, thats how people take gravity samples and how many times do you see anyone blaming a gravity reading for messing up their beer?? Never.

Come on Do it. All the cool kids are.

Let's see if I can help out a bit here.

I'm going to assume the following:

You have 5.5 gallons of 1.048 beer. You want to add some boiled DME to get the final gravity to 1.064. Since it's already fermenting, hydrometer readings won't tell you much now.

5.5 gallons at 1.048 is 48 * 5.5 = 264 gravity points.

You need to add DME and water such that gravity points / volume = 64.
The extract potential of DME is 44 ppppg (points per pound per gallon).

Suppose you wanted to boil up a half gallon of water with enough extract to hit your FG target. You would then need to have 64 * (5.5 + 0.5) = 384 total gravity points. Therefore, you'd need to add 384 - 264 = 120 gravity points.

To get 120 gravity points, you need 120 / 44 = 2.73 (roughly) lb of extract. Call it 2-3/4 lb you need to add.

So, if you boil 2-3/4 pounds of extract in a half gallon of water to make a half gallon of 1.240 wort (hell, that's practically syrup), and add it to your fermenter, you'll have six gallons of wort with an equivalent OG of 1.064.

However, since you added gravity but no more hops, your IBU would drop, and your beer would be less hoppy -- not necessarily desirable for an IPA. Honestly, for the extra effort and expense, I'd consider just letting it ferment out. If it's way too hoppy, you can always age it to let it mellow.

jds, if the original recipe called for 1.064, and all the hop's IBUs were meant for 1.064, why would getting the "OG" back to 1.064 unbalance the amount of hops?

Well I did it. I boiled 2.5 lbs of the same DME for the recipe in 0.5 gallons of water. Cooled it to within 4 degrees of the temp of the already fermenting primary and added. Within 30 minutes there was increased airlock activity. This morning, 12 hours later, the yeast were having an after-party well after bar close.

Following jds's calculations:

5.0 gallons at 1.048 is 48 * 5 = 240 gravity points

I needed to add DME and water such that gravity points / volume = 64.
The extract potential of DME is 44 ppppg (points per pound per gallon).

I wanted to boil an additional 0.5 gallons of water
I needed to have 64 * (5.0 + 0.5) = 352 total gravity points.
So I needed to add 352 - 240 = 112 gravity points.

To get 120 gravity points, I needed 112 / 44 = 2.54 (roughly) lb of extract. Call it 2-1/2 lb

So, I boiled 2-1/2 pounds of extract in a half gallon of water to make a half gallon of 1.240 wort, and added it to the fermenter. Now I have 5.5 gallons of wort with an equivalent OG of 1.064.

There was a little bit of scorching, but nothing major.

Thanks for the help. Now we will have to wait and see what happens.

Talloak said:

Yah alright. Screw it. Lesson learned. Try again soon. Probably better not to mess around with it at this point. Still curious if anyone has ever done this successfully.

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I have done this second ferment a few times with big Belgians. Usually the second addition is a sugar of some type: cane, corn or honey, but the idea there is to dry out the beer more and get that gravity down.

In your case that is not your goal but because you are talking about DME then that would not happen anyway so no worries.

To answer your general question. This is a perfectly acceptable practice provided that you keep in mind a couple things: be clean (I know, obvious) and make sure you boil the water well to get rid of oxygen in suspension. You do not want to introduce oxygen at anytime after visible ferment begins.

If it was me and my beer, I would do it.

RedIrocZ-28 said:

jds, if the original recipe called for 1.064, and all the hop's IBUs were meant for 1.064, why would getting the "OG" back to 1.064 unbalance the amount of hops?

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It's a minor thing, but the difference would be the total volume of wort. Increasing the wort volume by 10% means a corresponding drop in concentration of isomerized alpha and beta acids, and therefore lower IBU's.

However, on second consideration, the accepted factor seems to be that a trained palate can sense a difference of ~ 5 IBU in bitterness. So any change in perceived bitterness would be near the lower limit of detectability by most people.

Talloak said:

Well I did it. I boiled 2.5 lbs of the same DME for the recipe in 0.5 gallons of water. Cooled it to within 4 degrees of the temp of the already fermenting primary and added. Within 30 minutes there was increased airlock activity. This morning, 12 hours later, the yeast were having an after-party well after bar close.

Following jds's calculations:

5.0 gallons at 1.048 is 48 * 5 = 240 gravity points

I needed to add DME and water such that gravity points / volume = 64.
The extract potential of DME is 44 ppppg (points per pound per gallon).

I wanted to boil an additional 0.5 gallons of water
I needed to have 64 * (5.0 + 0.5) = 352 total gravity points.
So I needed to add 352 - 240 = 112 gravity points.

To get 120 gravity points, I needed 112 / 44 = 2.54 (roughly) lb of extract. Call it 2-1/2 lb

So, I boiled 2-1/2 pounds of extract in a half gallon of water to make a half gallon of 1.240 wort, and added it to the fermenter. Now I have 5.5 gallons of wort with an equivalent OG of 1.064.

There was a little bit of scorching, but nothing major.

Thanks for the help. Now we will have to wait and see what happens.

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Cool. Glad it worked out. I really want to point out that you did a great job of diagnosing your problem and researching BEFORE mucking about with the beer. Revvy would be so proud.

jds said:

Cool. Glad it worked out. I really want to point out that you did a great job of diagnosing your problem and researching BEFORE mucking about with the beer. Revvy would be so proud.

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I want to make sure that you understand what you have done here. By your actions and calculations, you can no longer be considered a n00b. That means the gloves come off..... You are own your own now.... Be free my child, fly. Damnit, get off the ground! FLY, FLY!!!

I've done the same thing a few times for really big beers. Get it to 1.065 or something when I initially pitch. Then, go a pound or two DME every couple of days basically with the same method you used. Avoids overstressing the yeast and has helped me get some of these monsters fermented. Now you should whip up an imperial stout.

Checked on it yesterday. It was at 1.015, so I racked it to a secondary. EdWort's recipe's FG was 1.018. Tasted great. I think I 'saved' it.

*High Five*

I'm Impressed. Nice work.