Missed My OG big time

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brewtus-maximus

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So I was trying my first IPA and I had read that you should filter your hops after the boil. I had never done this before though; usually I let them into the fermenter. So long story short, like a newb, I filtered with a much finer filter than I should have used and consequently I lost a ton of my sugars. My OG was about 1.031. I have had it in primary for almost a week now and it had fermented well enough and is now settling. I'm wondering if there is anything that I can so to beef up the body at this point. I am worried that the hops will overpower it since my gravity is so low.

Has anyone ever performed a mini-mash and added it to their secondary or is that even possible?
 
Can you tell us a little more about your process? I can't really think of a way a homebrewer would be able to filter out the sugars, since they are dissolved.
 
You didn't filter the sugars. As blizzard suggested the sugars are dissolved and effectively can't be filtered.
I'm guessing you did a partial boil and used top-up water after the boil. Frequently, the wort isn't 100% mixed before the hydrometer sample is taken. Your O.G. sample will be either way high or way low. Don't sweat it---record your F.G. and start fresh on the next batch.
If you did hit a low O.G. you could potentially add some table sugar to the fermenter. People do this with some Belgian styles to gain both high ABV and a lower F.G., but I won't recommend it at this point. If you're very sanitary, you could take a hydrometer sample now and see what it's up to. If it were me I'd let it go.
Just curious- what did you use to filter? Kyle
 
Cool thanks. I used on of those filters that fits into a funnel. It came with my starter kit. It's pretty fine though and I caught a lot of trub.

That said, do I need to mix my Carboy before I get my OG next time or what?
 
Also thinking about what you said... It was an extract brew and yes I added water to the wort after it was all said and done. My boil only yielded about a gallon. So I had to top it off big time likely making for some serious variations in the layers of wort.
 
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