Boosting abv after boil

[icantbejon]

So I brewed today and my recipe came out amazingly short on OG. Supposed to be 1.048 and I only hit 1.035. This sucks of course. Not sure where I went wrong. Followed normal procedures and I've never been this off before. In any case, is there anything I can do to boost my ferment ales at this time to correct this mistake. Beer should be in the low 4's for ABV and right now it won't even hit 3%. I'm brewing this for a guys wedding, so now was not a good time to have this mistake. Any help out there will be appreciated.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Did you do a partial boil and then use top up water?

 

[icantbejon]

No, AG. My preboil gravity was right on too. I'm really not sure what went wrong.

 

[tally350z]

What was it that you brewed? I ask cause you can increase it with sugar, however its going to dry it out quite a bit, depending on how much you add..

 

[GDRMaille]

You could add more extract by taking about one gallon of your wort and just warming it up on the stove until the extract is dissolved in (not hot enough to boil though), then pitch that into the rest of your batch and stir (not to the point of aeration).

 

[icantbejon]

What was it that you brewed? I ask cause you can increase it with sugar, however its going to dry it out quite a bit, depending on how much you add..

Just run of the mill sugar? I brewed a honey wheat ale.

 

[GDRMaille]

Replace where I said extract with honey...

 

[tally350z]

Yea regular table sugar.. Just dissolve and add.

Edit: You can use LME or DME.

Just have to calculate how much to add to the wort to reach your desired abv.

Or add more honey.

 

[bambrew]

You can add sugar to the fermentor. This is done sometimes to make sure the yeast plow through all the maltose and maltotriose first. Take a pound of sugar and a little bit of water, mix it in a pot, turn the heat on low, and heat it up until you feel good about it being sanitized. (Zen) Then let it cool and pour it in.

The sanitizing isn't totally necessary when you add the sugar to the end of a barleywine or high alcohol fermentation, but with only 3% alcohol in there, you are going to want to be careful.

There may be better ways to add the sugar to the fermentor as well, but that is what I have done.

 

[icantbejon]

What if I added a few cups of DME? Would that have a positive effect?

 

[bambrew]

How much honey was on the original recipe? Since its a honey ale, if it was me, I would just add more straight to the fermentor. It will probably make it too dry, or maybe a little thin tasting, but you know they are gonna suck it down at the wedding.

 

[icantbejon]

How much honey was on the original recipe? Since its a honey ale, if it was me, I would just add more straight to the fermentor. It will probably make it too dry, or maybe a little thin tasting, but you know they are gonna suck it down at the wedding.

I used honey malt, so not really honey. I guess I'm going the table sugar route. I heated 1 lb of sugar in some water. Now I'm cooling. Gonna get it down to 72 and mix.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

No, AG. My preboil gravity was right on too. I'm really not sure what went wrong.

Hmmm, have you checked your boil off rate lately?

As others said, you can add sugars now if you want. Just be sanitary.

 

[tally350z]

1 lb will increase your OG .009 and decrease FG .002.. So if your anal and want to get as close as possible add more sugar. If not let it roll. I'm sure you'll have none left at the end of the wedding.

 

[Toga]

Boil up a pound and a half of dme in a quart of water, quick cool then add. I did this a couple times when I first started AG and did not have my process down. Worked like a charm.

 

[jtakacs]

how do you hit pre-boil gravity and miss post boil by .013? i don't have a high boil loss rate, but that's pretty big.

i'd say keep boiling.

 

[BostonianBrewer]

Just add honey it's Abiotic so no bacteria is in there, thus no need to boil just warm it up in some water and add it to your fermenter