KBS Clone ended up 10 pts shy, to bump up?

[funky_brewster]

Last Friday, I made a Kentucky Breakfast Stout clone (from BYO, with my iteration here). I brew in a bag, and knew that 17.25 lbs was going to be an experiment. The bag held up fine, but I chose to sparge in a bottling bucket rather than my typical "pour over" method, since the bag was so full and my colander would just make a mess.

The bucket worked fine, except I probably used too much sparge water, diluting my "runnings". I ended up collecting close to 9 gallons (still coming out of the bucket at around 1.040) and had to call it quits because I could never boil through that much on my 8 gallon pot (I was keeping the extra in a side pot, on heat). I let the boiling go for 2 hours, since I was trying to concentrate the wort. But to no avail, I couldn't hit the estimated OG.

So my question is, having landed on 1.082 when the recipe calls for 1.092, should I (and if so, how) boost the gravity with something? Hopville says 1.5 lbs of candi sugar would do it. I have half a pound of that on hand, and could just use table sugar or DME for the rest. I haven't checked the gravity since brew day, but I pitched onto a cake of WLP510 - Bastogne Belgian Ale yeast (what I had on hand which was big enough to handle the KBS). It didn't rock hard, but has been going steadily since then.

Your thoughts are all appreciated!
-Funky

 

[aarossell]

I brewed this same recipe, NEARLY the exact grain bill-- 1 lb chocolate malt, Crystal 150L, and I didn't add any sugar. The cocoa I used was 4oz unsweetened 100% cacao, and I used slightly less coffee. Added only 0.5 cup bourbon, half a vanilla bean, and 6 oz cold-brewed coffee. Anyway... my OG was 1.072. I figure yours was only 10 points higher because of the added sugars. I finished sparge with about 8 gallons, boiled 90 min. I think the estimated OG of 1.092 is for a much higher efficient system-- I tend to hit about 70-75% most of the time... which I believe is what that recipe states should work.

I would just pitch yeast with what you have, and if you decide in the future you want to try to aim higher, then go for it some other time.

How did yours turn out? I just racked mine today onto the secondary additions-- SG = 1.017, tastes super silky, lightly chocolaty, and plenty of nice roasted malt. Bourbon might be too strong-- will age this in the basement for a while before kegging.