add dme to secondary?

[troybinso]

I made a porter last night with mostly malt extracts, but I also tried my hand with mashing some whole grains. Anyway, I sparged into a plastic carboy that I haven't used before and then filled it up with water. I first realized that it was bigger than my usual carboy because the mouth is too big for my stopper and my blow-off tube, so i siphoned into my 5 gallon for primary fermentation and pitched the yeast. After siphoning I had about 1/2 gallon or so leftover and I saved it in a water bottle in the fridge.

Anyway, the extra water made my gravity lower than I want it to be for a porter - 1.045. I was thinking I could heat up my leftover wort, throw in a bunch of dme, and add it to the big plastic carboy for a secondary fermentation. Will this work? Is there a better way? Or should I just leave it and learn from my mistake next time and have a light-drinkin' porter?

 

[david_42]

Nothing wrong with a low gravity ale in the summer. Use the extra wort for a starter. If you must boost the gravity, a pound of DME will raise the ABV about 1.1%.

 

[budbo]

If you are going to re-add your leftover wort, I would boil it first. I've added wort to raise OG before in the primary, no bad effects except I just boiled some DME and forgot to add hops to it so it lowered my IBU

 

[troybinso]

I moved the porter from the primary fermenter to secondary and boiled the extra wort with a pound of wheat dme. The gravity readings were 1.015 before the addition, and 1.031 after. Sound about right?

 

[homebrewer_99]

OUCH! A 1.015 OG sounds even too low for a Bud Light.

 

[troybinso]

Sorry, the original gravity was 1.045, then it fermented for a week down to 1.015. Then I added some more dme and the leftover wort and it went back up to 1.031.

 

[homebrewer_99]

Sorry, the original gravity was 1.045, then it fermented for a week down to 1.015. Then I added some more dme and the leftover wort and it went back up to 1.031.

OK, now I understand...

 

[steinsato]

Raising the dead! Troybinso, how did that work out for you? A freind of mine just called me last night and I thought he could do the same thing. He brewed a porter that came out at 1.052 instead of 1.062. He seems to be dead set on upping the abv on it and wanted to add table sugar to primary to correct it. I told him that adding table sugar to a porter would be a big mistake because it would not only dry it out but also thin it out. I told he may be able to boil up a small amount of water with 1 lb of DME and add that to the secondary. I figured he might be able to get away with that. Just curious as to how yours turned out by doing that. Personally I think he should just leave his porter alone but like I said he wants to up the abv.

 

[Shawn_John]

in a similiar situation, brewed a robust porter all grain, target 1.066 actual 1.052. this is a vanilla bourbon type that is going to be aged on oak. I was wondering if adding DME to your friends porter did anything worth while? My fear is that my additons in secondary are going to overpower the beer since I am low on my gravity. Brewed before and hit 90%, don't really know why I missed this time but need to rescue if possible.