Missed my OG, significantly...

[JBeaber]

Hey all. Not sure what went wrong, but I missed my original gravity by quite a bit. My target gravity was 1.048, actual was more like 1.036! I just pitched it in my bucket for primary fermentation. After a week, I intend to move it to a secondary. Can I add more DME or sugar to raise the fermentable content? If so, how much? Also, should I pitch a bit more yeast at the same time to encourage another round of fermentation? Thanks!

-John

The recipe is here:
http://recipetavern.com/index.php?pg=recipe&recipeid=2

[bub]

too late... just roll with it, if you are gonna add DME you gotta do it before the ferment kicks off.
BUB

[Kaiser]

Did you do a partial boil and topped off with water? If yes, did you mix well before taking a sample?

Kai

[JBeaber]

I did mix it pretty well before the yeast addition/OG reading. Well, if it ends up a low gravity beer, I'll survive. If it ends up nasty, I still have time to remake it before the holidays. Great recipe, by the way, for a spice beer. I have had it before. fortunately, it is pretty cheap with the exception of the spices.

[DannyW]

Assuming you didn't grossly mismeasure something (like using 6# of extract instead of 9#, or you made 8 gallons instead of 5) then your gravity is almost certainly not as low as you measured; it just wasn't mixed up all the way.

There can be significany stratification even after it looks like it has been stirred really well. Don't worry, the yeast will make sure it all gets mixed up in the end!

[bperetto]

I'm with Kai, you probably didn't mix it well enough (almost impossible to) to take an accurate reading.


If you wanted to, yes you could boil up some sugar and/or dme, cool, and add it to the fermenter in primary. Many commercial big beers are made that way.

If you hypothetically wanted to go from 1.036 to 1.048, you'd have to add 1/2 a gallon of 1.165 OG wort to get there. (or 3/4 Gal of 1.125). But then you could run into fermenter space problems.

I'd reccomend that you just leave it be and drink whatever you've made!