I oversparged and missed my target gravity by 10 pts... should I correct?

[luckybeagle]

I am brewing on a 3 vessel, 16 gallon eHERMS system and was attempting to clone a Westmalle Tripel today. I got distracted with a work call and got back to my system after sparging to a preboil volume of ~13.6 gallons (should've been 12.2 gallons). I didn't check preboil gravity so I wasn't able to correct with a longer boil, but my OG was 10 full points lower than my target. Here's what I ended up with:

• 11 gallons in the fermenters instead of 10
• 37 IBU for a BU:GU ratio of 0.51 (this ratio is my biggest concern as 0.39 BU:GU is what the style and recipe call for)
• OG of 1.070 instead of 1.080. This is 5 points lower than the minimum for the Tripel style according to the BJCP.

I used 4 lbs of table sugar (16.8% of the total grist bill by weight) and contemplated making a simple syrup using an additional 1lb split between the fermenters and added at high krausen to get a few extra points.

Should I attempt to bump the gravity up 5 points or just leave it as is and have a lower ABV tripel? I just don't know how "unbalanced" it will come off with the higher BU:GU ratio. Thoughts?

 

[johnnysoj]

You can let it ride and have a lower triple, or increase your boil enough to boil down to your original target volume, then start your clock and add your hops. The only downside to that, I believe, would be that your color might be off. Five points isn't too big of a deal, and as long as the beer is clean, and the body is right, it shouldn't have an issue in competitions.

 

[luckybeagle]

Thanks johnny, I won't stress it.

I actually feel a bit better after calculating the BU:GU ratio for Westmalle's tripel:

IBU 39
OG 1.080

39/80=.49

I'm only .04 points off from this at 37/70=.53.

I'll report back once it's ready to sample. Seems very unlikely to stray into double IPA bitterness territory