I messed up.

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DavyMark

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Ok, so I've only done extract recipes, but someone bought me a AG recipe, so I figured I would give it a try. The recipe was an American Pale Ale. The grain was 6lbs Light Munich and 2lbs Caramunich. I mashed with 10 2/3 Quarts of water at 158 for 40 minutes. Then mashed out at 170. Sparged with 4 gallons at 170. Then boiled for 60 minutes adding hops as instructed. The target SG was 1.045 but my OG was 1.016!? I admit I probably did not mill the grain enough. Is that my only problem? Or am I doing something else wrong. I am still a noob. Also I had already started the yeast so I pitched it anyway (following advice on this board to never throw away a brew). It has been in the primary for 3 days and mostly stopped fermenting about one bubble every 2 minutes. Can I add some DME in a secondary. Help, please.
 
milling is HUGE. people on these forums talk about this as a discussion point all the time but if they werent milled then that would deffinitly account for the figgerence. Usually i mash for 60-90 minutes, with a shorter mash yielding a lower gravity. Since you already pitched yeast i dont know that theres anything you can do. I would toss the batch and just know for next time that you need a good grain crush and slightly longer on the mash. 158 is also kinda high and will give you alot of unfermentable dextrins in the wort leading to a higher final gravity, and a lower ABV beer...i usually mash at 148-156. 153 is about average
 
You'd probably need close to 3 lbs of DME to make up that much gravity. You can still add it, just be sure to boil it in some water for a bit, 10 mins would be good, let it cool and add it to your primary. I would say you could have mashed a little thinner, Closer to 2qts/lb. Splitting your sparges into two equal amounts seems to help a lot. But as you said, your crush would probably be the first thing look at. Do a search on "crush" and you'll probably find a good picture of what your crush should have looked like.
 
So here's the math I tried to use, to figure out exactly how much DME you would need...

Your target was 1.045...your max points(PPG??) 45x5=225
Your actual was 1.016...your PPG was 16x5=80
for a difference of 145 points

DME has a max yield of 45...so you divide 145 by 45 and that gives you 3.22 lbs of DME to make up 145 points.

**DISCLAIMER** let the smart folks on here confirm or debunk this before you try it. :mug:
 
So here's the math I tried to use, to figure out exactly how much DME you would need...

Your target was 1.045...your max points(PPG??) 45x5=225
Your actual was 1.016...your PPG was 16x5=80
for a difference of 145 points

DME has a max yield of 45...so you divide 145 by 45 and that gives you 3.22 lbs of DME to make up 145 points.

**DISCLAIMER** let the smart folks on here confirm or debunk this before you try it. :mug:

i use 44 pts for DME but your math is right. Personally i wouldnt try and salvage this but you could....and wooleys right. Use a blowoff if you do decide to add extract.
 
Ok, so I opened the primary and found a gravity of 1.002. I tasted some and it was very hoppy and very thin. So then I took three pound of extra light dme and boiled it in 1 gallon of water for like 10 minutes. Then I cooled it to 70 degrees and poured it into the primary and gently stirred. The gravity was then 1.030. So I racked it into a 6 gallon glass carboy and put in the airlock. That was at about noon. So now it's almost midnight and I just got home from work and checked the carboy and the fermentation is going wild. So I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks for all the help. I'll let y'all know how it turns out in a couple of weeks.
 

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