Low OG on 90 minute IPA clone

[RIT_Warrior]

So I brewed a 90 minute IPA clone today, and for the most part everything went great. This was my first partial mash, so I steeped 1.75lbs pilsner malt at 150 for 45 minutes and added my 8lbs DME. Unfortunately, this was my first brew with my new pot, and I think I miscalculated the amount of water that would boil off by a bit. So my beer is around 1.072 OG.

Also, it looks like the extract recipe in the magazine I bought (which is also here):
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/dfh-90-minute-ipa-clone-115215/
seems to be a little off in their gravity calculations. They are shooting for 1.088 gravity with the all grain, but beersmith tells me I'd be at 1.080 if I did everything right with the grains/extract/water and used that extract recipe.

So I'm wondering now: is there anything I can and/or should do to fix it? I have about a pound of DME left, I could boil that up in a small amount of water I suppose and add it to the fermenter. I'd really like even more, but it is thanksgiving tomorrow and I doubt any LHBS is going to be open, so my only option after the DME would be cane sugar if I want to increase it more.

What do you guys think?

 

[caver95]

I would enjoy a homebrew while relaxing.

Did you end up with more than 5 gallons? And did you read your hydrometer at the right temp? if it was too warm and not adjust it will give you a low reading. Good luck with it, that is one of my favorite beers.

 

[RIT_Warrior]

I would enjoy a homebrew while relaxing.

I'm well aware the beer will turn out fine if I do nothing, but I'd like to correct the gravity if possible unless that is inadvisable for some reason, or else I'll have to rename it "Sketchy bar served 90 minute IPA". I think it would be OK to add some, as I know that is how you make a 120 minute IPA.

Did you end up with more than 5 gallons?

Yep. Not really sure how much I ended up with, to be honest, but I think around 5.5 gallons, using Beersmith to help guess. So that put me at around 8 gravity points too low, and the incorrect recipe put me at another 8 points too low.

And did you read your hydrometer at the right temp? if it was too warm and not adjust it will give you a low reading. Good luck with it, that is one of my favorite beers.

It was probably around 70 degrees when I measured, so lets call it 1.073. Still around 15 points too low.

 

[caver95]

I put what you used in beersmith, 8lb dme and 1.75 lbs 2row at 5.5 gals and it should come out at 1.072. So it looks like you are spot on.

 

[RIT_Warrior]

I put what you used in beersmith, 8lb dme and 1.75 lbs 2row at 5.5 gals and it should come out at 1.072. So it looks like you are spot on.

Yep, that's how I got that number.

Anyway, the fermentation is going nicely. I just checked on it now, it almost blew the top off of my bucket (I pitched 2 Wyeast 1099 smack packs). I figure tomorrow I'm going to pick up some more DME and whip up a batch of 2.5lbs DME/.25gallons water (I'll probably throw some simcoe in there as well). This should put the final OG right around 1.088. And I think that will be easier on the yeasties, who already have their work cut out for them with a 1.072 beer.

 

[bknifefight]

If you have room in your fermenter, go ahead and add some DME boiled up for 10 minutes. Think of it as an incremental feeding to keep your yeast with plenty of stuff to munch on.

 

[RIT_Warrior]

Alright, and update and a warning for anyone wanting to brew the extract 90 minute IPA recipe.

First the warning: use 9lbs DME instead of the 8lbs that the recipe says. This will get you to the desired 1.088 OG without the drama I had to go through (also, be careful with how much water you use ). For peace of mind, run your recipes through Beersmith FIRST, so you can see if a mistake was made, at which point you can easily correct it.

As for the update: only a few disasters with my extract re-infusion. I tried about .2 gallons of water with ~2lbs DME. If anyone has to do this, allow me to suggest LME instead. The thing boiled over about 5 times; once it boiled over so bad that it extinguished the pilot light on my stove. When I finally got the pilot light going, I accidentally lit my hops bag on fire (I boiled up 1/2 an ounce of simcoe as well, to make up for my increased water). While extinguishing the hops bag with a glass of water, I killed my pilot light again.

Other then those few minor niggles, everything went fine. I dumped the syrupy mixture into the primary, and gave everything a good shake to re-aerate. I also have a bunch of pictures, I'll post those sometime soon.

If you have room in your fermenter, go ahead and add some DME boiled up for 10 minutes. Think of it as an incremental feeding to keep your yeast with plenty of stuff to munch on.

I'm going to pretend that was my plan all along instead of a screw-up on my part. I did it for the yeast!

 

[SchlazzGraft]

The low OG reading could also be caused by separation of the wort and not completely swirling... did you pour water on top to reach your final volume? This happened to me for my first brew, and the reading was off by a quite a bit. Also don't forget your temperature compensation.

 

[RIT_Warrior]

The low OG reading could also be caused by separation of the wort and not completely swirling... did you pour water on top to reach your final volume? This happened to me for my first brew, and the reading was off by a quite a bit. Also don't forget your temperature compensation.

Nah, it wasn't that, because I added the top-off water that put me over the edge mid-boil. I didn't top off at all post-boil. I had also just finished shakin' the fermenter like a polaroid picture to aerate. So I think it was well-mixed.

The temperature correction was probably nominal as well. I wait until 70ish to transfer to the fermenter from my ice-bathed boil pot to avoid the (probably bogus) hot-side aeration myth/fact. Generously assuming it was at 80 when I took the reading, that would only put me off about 3 points, according to the hydrometer literature.