missed my FG...any suggestions to mitigate things?

so i made a minimash honey kolsch about three weeks ago and last night i transferred it to secondary. when i took the gravity readings, i had to double and triple check to make sure i wasn't seeing things, but no, i had flown past my intended FG by about 7 points. i was supposed to have something in the ballpark of 1.014, but wound up with 1.008 instead.

i mashed the grains at 155F for 50 min, and all liquid additions were just prior to flameout...honey first, then LME. this was a 5 1/2 gallon batch. initial gravity was 1.06, which also overshot my projections of 1.057.

now i realize i've got a bigger beer on my hands, and somehow i'll try to manage :cross:, but i'm a little concerned that it'll be too thin. can i add some nonfermentable sugars in secondary to help put some meat on them bones, and if so, how much?

i tasted my sample, and i've since abandoned this notion of having a light summery beer. well, in all honesty i abandoned that when i decided at the last minute to add the honey...i mean sure, honey is highly fermentable, but i wasn't expecting it to be this highly fermentable, especially since i only put in a cup.

so my question is this...what would happen if i added either maltodextrin or lactose (or both, or something else entirely)? i'm looking to add a little body and maybe bring out the honey flavor a little more.

thanks!

 

okay then, i won't add it. i guess my concern was quaffability, but i do admit that i willingly threw that notion out the window at brewtime. i guess more than anything i was just shocked how this fermented out so much.

i've been thinking about it over the past couple of days and i sort of decided to say screw it, if dionysus saw fit to bless me with more alcohol, then who am i to turn away a gift from the gods?

it's not like my family & friends will push the glass back and say, "sorry man, this beer just has too much alcohol."

 

Has your thermometer been calibrated? If you were mashing lower than you thought that could easily explain the change in FG.

For that matter, has your hydrometer been calibrated?

 

Your FG is not that far off from your target FG. Relax and enjoy it. Maybe it will be better than you had ever hoped.