Missed my expected og

[hanchen1]

I brewed an all grain beer yrsterday. My fault. My question is, "I have the wort in a fermentation vessel in my cooler in order to bring the temperature down to pitching temp. Is it possible to make a batch of wort using water and dme to make up the lost gravity points before I add the yeast?

 

[Steveruch]

I brewed an all grain beer yrsterday. My fault. My question is, "I have the wort in a fermentation vessel in my cooler in order to bring the temperature down to pitching temp. Is it possible to make a batch of wort using water and dme to make up the lost gravity points before I add the yeast?

Yes. You can add it anywhere in the brewing process.

 

[T Murph]

I concur just pasteurize it or boil it to avoid introducing unwanted critters.

 

[IslandLizard]

What was your intended (recipe's) OG and what is the current OG?

Did you add any (top-up) water to the wort in your fermenter?
Did you lose much wort somewhere in the process, like left behind in the mash or kettle?

As @Steveruch said, you can add DME to it, anytime.
Just dissolve it in some hot water, in a kitchen pot, then bring to a boil (or at least to 170F for 10') to pasteurize, cover with a lid and let chill in the sink or a tub with cold water., before adding.
Use the minimum amount of water for your makeup wort in order to keep the gravity of it as high as possible, while adding the least amount of volume.

That will fix this batch, now you need to find out why you missed the intended OG...
Coarse milled grain perhaps, wort losses, incomplete conversion, etc.?
It may take a few brews to get all your volumes and numbers worked out.

Unless you missed many points, don't sweat it too much, and use an extra pound of base malt next time.

 

[Kickass]

What was your target and what was your actual OG’s?

I do one of two things when I undershoot my OG:

1. Nothing
2. Add table sugar (within reason)

 

[AlexKay]

What was your target and what was your actual OG’s?

I do one of two things when I undershoot my OG:

1. Nothing
2. Add table sugar (within reason)

Me too, with a strong preference for #1. I've never once made a beer where I've tasted it and said, "This would be good, if only I'd hit my expected gravity."

 

[Holden Caulfield]

"I have the wort in a fermentation vessel in my cooler in order to bring the temperature down to pitching temp. Is it possible to make a batch of wort using water and dme to make up the lost gravity points before I add the yeast?

Going forward...

Best time to adjust your wort to come within measurement error of your intended OG every time is after you have collected your preboil volume.

Using a refractometer you can quickly assess how much sugar (points) was collected (gallons*(sg-1)*1000) and add or subtract sugar by adding DME or pouring off wort and adding back water. If your boil rate is reasonably accurate, then you will hit your OG every time. There are calculators available that can quickly make the calculations for you. This is best practice for a few reasons...

• Simpler process (don't have to worry about boiling up some DME at the end of the day)
• Adding DME+water to your fermenter changes the volume diluting your intended hop bitterness slightly
• While table sugar will add alcohol, it will add no flavor or body

 

[hotbeer]

How far off were you? And did you wind up with more volume of wort than what the recipe suggested you should have?

It doesn't take very much extra water to give you a lower SG than expected.

And how well the grain was crushed, your mash procedures, sparging, BIAB or more traditional methods will make some difference too.

While you can make it up with extract or sugar of some sort, why bother? Just accept that it'll be a lower ABV and maybe not quite the same tasting experience as if it were the correct OG.

 

[hanchen1]

Thanks for the info. My intended OG was 1.061. My actual was 1.040. I believe I used too much water for the mash. Grains were 14 lbs and I used 5.5 gallons of water. I think it was the new math that screwed me up, not age.

I talked to a brewer about 1 hour ago and walked me me through the amount of dme to use to make up for the lost gravity points and the process involved.

Thanks again our the help.