Need to adjust OG

[hercher]

I brewed a English Barley Wine on Friday but over sparged. So instead of a 5 gallon batch at about 1.090, I wound up with 6.5 gallons at 1.070. Obviously my keg only holds 5 gallons. In order to preserve the batch I went ahead and transferred it to my fermenter and pitched my yeast. Obviously I could just let it go and call it something else and have a very good beer, but I really wanted that higher gravity.

Question: I figure I'll adjust the gravity by adding some malt extract (most likely powdered). How do I calculate how much to add?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Spundit]

I have never added dme to the fermenter. I have added it during the boil to correct gravity. It should work but I am no expert.

The conversion for DME is 1 lb gives 45 gravity points in 1 gallon. I know brewfather has a gravity correction calculator under tools. If your software doesn't have that I suspect a Google search for "gravity correction homebrew" will give you a calculator if you don't want to do the math.

That is a pretty big correction. Keep in mind your specialty malts % will get "diluted" with the additional base malt dme. Usually that is not a big deal but can be noticeable with such a big correction. I am sure it could still be a great beer... just different from the original recipe.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Question: I figure I'll adjust the gravity by adding some malt extract (most likely powdered). How do I calculate how much to add?

The BeerSmith calculator says 2.96 lb of DME to raise 6.5 gals of 1.070 to 1.090.

I am not 100% sure how I would feel about adding DME or LME directly to a fermenter. Seems like it should work and would eventually get dissolved and mixed in. A fresh bag of DME should be sanitary.

 

[hercher]

The BeerSmith calculator says 2.96 lb of DME to raise 6.5 gals of 1.070 to 1.090.

I am not 100% sure how I would feel about adding DME or LME directly to a fermenter. Seems like it should work and would eventually get dissolved and mixed in. A fresh bag of DME should be sanitary.

I figured I'd boil it in the least amount of water necessary to incorporate it into the beer. I'll be fermenting fairly slowly, so by the time I get it in (probably Tuesday night or Wednesday morning), there will still be enough time to get it incorporated.

 

[Holden Caulfield]

I am not 100% sure how I would feel about adding DME or LME directly to a fermenter. Seems like it should work and would eventually get dissolved and mixed in. A fresh bag of DME should be sanitary.

This is no different than preparing candi-sugar to add to the fermenter when making a high gravity Belgian - it is done all the time. Dilute it with about 14 fl oz of water per pound DME. Boil for 15 mins and cool to fermenter temperature and then add. Sterilized and fully dissolved. This will increase your volume about 1/3 of a gallon so you will be slightly under your target gravity or you could add a little more DME. Back of the envelope calculation 42/128 * 80 = 26.5/45 = .6 pounds. The exact amount can be calculated but this should get you close.

 

[BAF]

(mistakenly replied in the wrong tab, oops! please disregard)

 

[hercher]

This is no different than preparing candi-sugar to add to the fermenter when making a high gravity Belgian - it is done all the time. Dilute it with about 14 fl oz of water per pound DME. Boil for 15 mins and cool to fermenter temperature and then add. Sterilized and fully dissolved. This will increase your volume about 1/3 of a gallon so you will be slightly under your target gravity or you could add a little more DME. Back of the envelope calculation 42/128 * 80 = 26.5/45 = .6 pounds. The exact amount can be calculated but this should get you close.

Thanks Holden! (BTW, I once inherited a cat named after Holden Caulfield. He was a great cat.)

 

[bwible]

This is going to be a tough one. Its all gravity points, figure it this way:

You have 6.5 gallons at 1.070. So 6.5 * 70 = 455 points.

Now you want 1.090, pick a volume. Lets say we go for 8 gallons. 8 * 90 = 720 minus the 455 you already have = 265 points. You need to add 1.5 gallons and 265 gravity points.

As was previously stated, DME is about 45 points per pound. 265 / 45 would require you to dissolve about 5.8 lbs of DME in 1.5 gallons of water and add that to your batch. You would have to split the batch into 2 fermenters and add it evenly.

Is it worth doing? Only you can decide that.

[edit] You could start out dissolving the 5.8 lbs in a larger volume and boilng it for an hour with hops. If you don’t do that note that your IBU is also going to be affected, more toward a sweeter beer.

 

[kevin58]

If it were me I would leave it alone and enjoy it as it is.