OG Misunderstanding

[TheMagicHatter]

I brewed a blonde ale recipe lastnight and missed the OG completely. I brewed the following recipe:

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: Salafe S-05
Yeast Starter: No
Batch Size (Gallons): 5.5
Original Gravity: 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.011
IBU: 22
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Color: 7
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 7 @ 68 F
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14 @ 68 F

Ingredients
======================================
0.50 lb CaraPils (steeped)
0.50 lb Crystal 10L (steeped)
6.00 lb Extra Light Dry Malt Extract

Hops
======================================
0.75 oz Willamette at 60
0.75 oz Willamette at 20
0.50 oz Willamette at 1

Other
======================================
1 unit, Whirfloc at 20

Notes
======================================
Place 3 gallons of cool water in brewpot and bring to 150 F. Put steeping grains in bag and steep for 1 hour.

Lift bag out, let drain and discard.

Bring water to boil, remove from heat and stir in 3 lbs of DME. Return to heat.
Bring to boil and watch for messy boil over. Once risk has subsided, add 60 min hops and start timer.

At 20 minutes, add whirfloc (or irish moss) and 20 minute hops.

At 5 minutes, add remaining DME (using same procedure as above).

At 1 minute, add last 0.50 oz of hops.

Add 1 gallon of cool water to primary.

Chill, transfer to primary, add cool water to bring to 5.5 gallons, pitch re-hydrated yeast.


My OG reading was 1.054.

We had some poor lighting in the kitchen lastnight so when I was filling the primary I ended up with around 6 gallons total. Would the extra water be enough to push the OG higher than the target?

 

[bennie1986]

Extra water will lower the OG so if you had hit 5 gallons your OG would have been even higher.

 

[midfielder5]

It will be fine. The extract has a set amount of sugars-- you cannot get more--the beer will get whatever 6# of extract gives you. (You can get less if you leave some extract in the container, or spill, or have boil over). Your recipe has only a tiny bit of steeping grains, too.

You probably did not stir it up enough after the added water, which is a common way for extract brewers to get an inaccurate reading, i.e, the hydro sample showed more extract than is in the beer because the water was not completely mixed in.
Adding 0.5 gallon extra of water is no big deal.
It will dilute OG a bit, not raise it. Based on your recipe numbers (not the hydro sample!) and using basic math, your OG at 6gallons will be 1.0394, rather 1.043 at 5.5gallons.
good luck.