Raising OG w/ DME before pitching yeast

[AfternoonReview]

So I found a few other threads that dealt with this, but none that ended up with solutions that would help me in my case.

I just brewed my 20th batch, but it was the first time I used extracts. I brewed the 5 gallon Brewer's Best Imperial Nut Brown kit. I was supposed to end up w an OG of 1.072ish, but I ended up at 1.038!!!!!

I have no idea how it happened, but if I want to raise the OG up to 1.070 by adding some DME, how much DME do I need, and how much water do I boil it? I just went out and bought 3lb of sparkling amber dme, and I have maybe 6oz of dark dme sitting around.

I can fit about 1 more gallon of wort in my carboy...

Thanks!

 

[badbrew]

Did you boil the whole thing?

 

[Stevo2569]

That's weird to miss the OG that bad with extract. Did you do a 10 G batch instead of 5?

 

[Stevo2569]

Just ran a # of amber DME through BeerSmith. 1# = .008. So 4 #'s will do .032.

 

[AfternoonReview]

Thanks for the quick response - I couldn't believe that the OG was that low either - but something with my first hydro reading must have been wrong.

After seeing it at 1.038, I added 1/4 cup of pre-boil wort that I happened to have around because I had originally put it aside for a pre-boil OG reading. That sample had an OG of around 1.100. So, after adding that little sample to the rest of the wort, I shook up the carboy and got another sample - this time it read 1.064!

I have no idea how the first reading was that low - I know I didn't mis-read it because I looked at it in disbelief several times. I don't know how adding that tiny amount of pre boil wort raised it to 1.064 either.

I'm thinking that maybe when I took the first OG reading, the wort wasn't mixed well?

Again, I have no idea what went wrong, but 1.064 is close enough for me.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Yooper]

I'm thinking that maybe when I took the first OG reading, the wort wasn't mixed well?

.

Yep! That's exactly it.

One of the handy things to know about extract is that all of the sugars are always in there. If you use the correct amount of water with the correct amount of extract, it's impossible to miss the OG.