Adding Extract (Later)

[Chris_Dog]

An online friend of mine made some beer yesterday and came up significantly low on the OG (if I recall correctly .01-.015 off). This brought up a question I was going to ask you guys. Can you add Extract a day or 2 after the beer is in the fermenter? OR Would it be better not to mess with it and have a "smaller" beer?

 

[TheJadedDog]

How well was the wort mixed once the top-off water was added? It's pretty hard to miss your target OG with extract but when you add top-off water the heavier wort sinks to the bottom, so a reading from the top will be off. I've found that a good shake (or stir) will change my hydro reading by up to 10 gravity points.

Even if that isn't the issue, I wouldn't add any extract once you've got it in the fermenter, just let it be.

 

[Chris_Dog]

It was an AG recipe.

 

[TheJadedDog]

Then I'd just leave it alone.

 

[Mutilated1]

You can add extract to it later without fear. Once the ferment is bubbling along, the yeast will attack extra DME or Dextrose almost as fast as you can pour it in. I wouldn't worry about getting the beer infected once the yeast are really going -- any little bugglet you accidentally introduce won't be able to compete with that.