Need help fixing low gravity wheat beer.

[msa8967]

I am not sure how this happened but my final gravity post boil barely was higher than my preboil gravity. I had a target of 1.054 and it came in at 1.044 when my preboil came it at 1.040. I have a 1.5 lb bag of dry wheat extract that I can use to fix this but I won't be able to do that until the morning and the beer will already have been in the primary for 16 hours. Can I still safely add the extract (boiled in water and cooled) to the primary w/o screwing anything else up? If I add 1.5 lbs of extract at 1/2 a gallon to 4.5 gallons already there how can I estimate the new gravity? I should be able to figure this out on my own but my thinking is just a bit blocked right now.

 

[SanPancho]

Did you make sure you corrected for temperature on your gravity sample? Cuz those numbers sound crazy.

As far as "fixing" and running new numbers, I'd look at Brewers friend. Free calculators for boil off, dilution, etc.

Or you have to manually calculate your gravity points, 4.5 gal times 44 points per gal (1.044) is 198 points. Figure out how many points per 1.5 lb of extract, add it to 198, then divide total points by total gallons, which sounds like 5 gallons.

For example, if that much extract gives 50 pts you'd have total of 248 pts in 5 gals, or 1.049ish.

 

[msa8967]

The gap setting on my crusher is off so much of the wheat malt didn't get crushed as much as I wanted. I figured adding 1.5 lbs of dme will add 0.013 pts per 5 gallons so I will give it a try in the early morning. Still unsure if adding this 16 hours after the start will have a negative effect on the beer.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Still unsure if adding this 16 hours after the start will have a negative effect on the beer.

Yes, wheat is a smaller perhaps harder kernel and typically benefits from a tighter crush.

I would dissolve the DME in a small pot with as little water as possible, gently heating to say 170-180 degrees, let it cool and add it, not a problem adding more sugars at this point.

 

[TwistedHops]

Yes, wheat is a smaller perhaps harder kernel and typically benefits from a tighter crush.

I would dissolve the DME in a small pot with as little water as possible, gently heating to say 170-180 degrees, let it cool and add it, not a problem adding more sugars at this point.

Shouldn't he boil the new wort fully? Prevent any possible infection? I would treat it as a yeast starter, kinda, and give a 5 min boil before cooling and pitching.

 

[wilserbrewer]

170 - 180 degrees will kill any nasties. I think pasteurization temp is like 160 something idk off hand. Boiling would work as well, but with as little water as possible to dissolve the DME, it may be easier to just gently simmer it to temp, kinda like a syrup. Boiling could be tricky IMO.

 

[joshesmusica]

The standard US flash pasteurization protocol is 161F for 15 seconds. But I usually like to boil my dme until the hot break has happened. Though I'm not sure if that makes a difference.

Adding DME at this point is completely acceptable. Go ahead and aerate the addition with a whisk or something, though, at this point, that's probably not necessary.

To figure out how much you have you need to figure out how many points per gallon it gives you. Usually DME is around 44 (or in other words, 1 pound of DME in 1 gallon of water would result in a 1.044 SG). As stated, if your original wort was 4.5 gallons, and you had an OG of 1.044, you have 198 total gravity points. So if you add in 1.5 pounds of DME boiled in .5 gallon of water, then you have 264 total gravity points divided by 5, or an OG of 1.053. If you boil the DME in less water, the OG will go up, if you use more water, the OG will go down. Basically you can divide 264 by how many gallons of liquid you end up with.

The equation is:
potential ppg x weight of fermentable / volume = SG

BUT!!!
I would be very concerned about your SG readings. According to Beersmith's calculations, with a standard boil-off rate (19%) and cooling shrinkage (4%), in order to end up with 4.5 gallons of 1.044 wort, you would have started with 5 gallons of 1.040 wort. The problem is that means that you only boiled for 20 mins though.

In order to end up with 4.5 gallons with those normal rates mentioned above, you would have started with 5.8 gallons of 1.040 wort. But if you had that much, you would have ended up at 1.051 OG after a 60 minute boil.

So something is off. Either you're not getting to a full boil, or your volume measurements are off, or you measuring the gravity incorrectly.