?Low OG Reading PLEASE HELP

[chefderekvann]

Ok so two nights ago I brewed a Peach Cobbler Ale and in my tired state I had forgotten that my grain wasn't milled yet... (yes i forgot to mill the grain, i know I'm an idiot...) I do batch sparging FYI.
I was told by my little recipe that i took from Brooklyn brewshops beer making book that it should be a 6.0% beer.

The OG reading was only 1.02

Here is what I used and how i did it...

3gal of water plus 4.5 gal for sparging

Mash:
4lb. English Pale Malt
3lb. Biscuit Malt
1lb. Caramel 15 Malt
1lb. Caramel 20 Malt
0.75lb. Flaked Oats

Boil:
0 mins-0.5 oz Columbus hops
30 mins-0.5 oz saaz hops
59 mins-0.5 oz saaz hops
end of boil i added 2.5cups brown sugar and 10 peaches. I let it steep for 20 mins and went on the process...

Is there any way of fixing this??? adding more sugar now that its 2 days in????

 

[peterj]

I'm sorry to say, but I don't think there's any way to save this. The 1.020 reading that you got is probably almost entirely from the brown sugar and peaches. Without breaking open the malt, you didn't release any of the enzymes needed for conversion and you also didn't release any of the carbohydrates that would have been converted into sugar. So you're basically fermenting grain husk flavored brown sugar peach water. I would dump it and try again.

I would also back way off on the Biscuit malt next time. That much seems like it would be overpowering. It also has little if any diastatic power, and that combined with the low diastatic power of English pale malt would make me worry about getting full conversion. I think 1 pound would be plenty (maybe even a little heavy).

 

[chefderekvann]

thanks.... would you replace the 3lb of biscuit malt with anything?

 

[TopherM]

Did you pitch your yeast?

I think what I may do just to try to salvage this is put he peach/sugar juice back in the boil kettle and reduce it down to a peach soda syrup. Boil it for a good while to reduce it down to a syrup, then add that syrup to carbonated water to taste to make a soda (either make your own carbonated water in a keg or buy some at the store).

You could also reduce it down to about 1.5-2 gallons (1.08ish OG), and finish it as a wine. Much more of a process than the soda syrup, though.

Better than dumping $10-12 worth of peach water.

 

[peterj]

thanks.... would you replace the 3lb of biscuit malt with anything?

I would just keep 1 lb of it and then replace the other 2 lbs with base malt to keep your OG the same.

 

[gfinockio]

Get some DME, do a small boil with it and add it in. Who knows - you may get something drinkable from it.

 

[estricklin]

Get some DME, do a small boil with it and add it in. Who knows - you may get something drinkable from it.

Bingo! If he acts now, he has a good chance to make a decent beer still.

 

[peterj]

Get some DME, do a small boil with it and add it in. Who knows - you may get something drinkable from it.

I wouldn't bother. You'd just be throwing good money after bad. You would have to add about 3 pounds of DME just to get the OG up to 1.040 or so (assuming you dissolve it in 2 quarts of water), and then you're still getting almost half of your gravity points from simple sugars. The money you would spend on the DME would be much better spent on buying ingredients again and rebrewing.

 

[gfinockio]

I wouldn't bother. You'd just be throwing good money after bad. You would have to add about 3 pounds of DME just to get the OG up to 1.040 or so (assuming you dissolve it in 2 quarts of water), and then you're still getting almost half of your gravity points from simple sugars. The money you would spend on the DME would be much better spent on buying ingredients again and rebrewing.

I disagree - adding about an extra litre of water with a pound of DME will help this beer. Well, enough to make it drinkable.

 

[peterj]

I disagree - adding about an extra litre of water with a pound of DME will help this beer. Well, enough to make it drinkable.

That would give him an OG of about 1.027 with only about 30% of the gravity actually coming from malt. I wouldn't even classify that as beer. It would be like a 3% ABV brown sugar peach cider with a hint of malt. I wouldn't imagine that would be very drinkable, but he could give it a shot if he doesn't mind risking some extra cash. A pound of DME isn't too expensive so it may be worth the experiment.

 

[gfinockio]

Hmmm - I actually had a thought - won't the peaches add some "gravity" over time? I mean, once they break down a bit and ferment, etc?