Really late malt addition?

[grrickar]

So I am itching to brew since I have the day off, but I am about 2 lbs short on LME. The kit is an oatmeal stout. Since my 'local' HBS is over an hour away in any direction, could I get away with brewing the kit as is, ordering the malt, and then boiling and adding it into the primary after a day or so?

Thinking I would reduce the boil volume appropriately, so I have headspace to add the new wort later, and divide up the hop bill so I'm not throwing unhopped wort in with the other.

Sort of a two stage brew? Any reason why this isn't ideal or wouldn't work?

This would not have happened if I hadn't used some of my malt earlier to make a starter for another batch. Oh well...

 

[fizgig]

Should be fine, your IBUs might be a little high, so back off the bittering hops accordingly.

 

[flars]

Add your DME like a late extract addition at flame out, or power down if you are electric. Boil the volume of water you will be using, remove from heat and add the DME, chill to the temperature of the wort in the fermentor.
I would not change the hop schedule. You will need less than a gallon to dissolve the DME into. Addition should probably be made before the end of day three, after active fermentation for the original wort had started.

An option is to hold your wort until you have the DME to add, then pitch the yeast. Much like no chill brewing where the wort is not quick chilled.

 

[Psylocide]

^ This.

My dad would often let his wort sit for a day before he pitched... probably not ideal, but he always brewed good beer.

 

[Calder]

Brew, hop, and pitch as normal. You can add the extract later with no issues. Just dissolve it in some boiling water (no need for a long boil), cool and add. As you noted, reduce the volume of the initial ferment to compensate for the addition (probably about half gallon).

You can add it at anytime, even a week later with no problems. It will restart fermentation. Kind of like adding fruit.

 

[Gavin C]

How about just doing a smaller batch. 3 gallons? Just a thought

 

[grrickar]

So I weighed the container and I was only a 1lb LME shy of the kit, so I went into Brewsmith and played around with it.

In all I put in 5 lbs dark Malliard Malt dark LME, and 1 lb dark brown sugar, plus the grains in the kit for partial mash (this was an oatmeal stout). Hey, oatmeal and brown sugar go hand-in-hand right?

The recipe came with/called for 1 oz Fuggles at 60 min, but Brewsmith said it the IBUs were low for the style so I added .6oz UK Goldings along with the Fuggles for 60 min. It smelled wonderful going into the carboy.

Should be interesting. Fermented between 62-64 degrees, and the first two days required a blow off tube (M&F dry ale yeast). Airlock went in today, and still happily bubbling.

Sitting next to my choc/java stout it looks mahogany as compared to the inky blackness of the java stout.