OG to low, help!

[Hamish]

Hi People,

Having a go at a Whistable Oyster Stout, Mini mash.
Followed the receipe.
Yield 19ltr
OG 1048 to 1049

Problem is that the OG i've got is 1020 @ 20 degrees
How do i increase the OG?
Is there a calculation for this?

Was intending to use malt to increase.

Thanks

[JoKing]

Yeah - I'd go down to the homebrew shop and grab a kilo of DME or a can of LME and chuck the whole lot in.

[jt]

Sounds odd, Is that the gravity of the mini mash or the extract only or both ?

[Hamish]

All, mini mash and malt added, i didn't think it was right either! so all i had to do was add the yeast .

[MrC]

I'd say definitely go with Joking's recommendation above with a kilo of DME or a can of LME and make sure you get the lightest/palest version if you go for LME.

If you post your recipe and process we might be able to figure out what went wrong? What grain & how much, who crushed it, what temp did you mash at, did you sparge (rinse) the grain, etc?

[Hamish]

Dunedin malt house made it up for me and crushed the grains. they supplied
Marris otter Pale malt .7kg
Choc Malt .17kg
Roasted Barley .396kg
Brown malt .17kg
Hops 26g @ 10.2%
Instruction he gave me are out of a book.
was told to put .700 kg of malt in first with 3.8ltrs then bring temp up to 65d add the Barley etc, keep temp at 65d for 90 min, drain then sparge with 3.8ltrs at 65d.
Put back on heat, add another 1.9ltrs of water bring to boil, add hops, boil for 45mins. add tea spoon Irish mosh, boil 15min
Strain

[jt]

And how much extract did you add and has it disolved ?

[Hamish]

Extract? are you meaning the .700 of malt.
on the recipy he has supplied the Extract is crossed out. the one your referring to is that to go in about the same time as the hops?

[Hamish]

Heck i think your found what has been missed! they crossed out the extract of 2.49kg, but should have just crossed out the total with a new amount of 1.6 kg.

I dont have any malt left over except a coopers lager kit, could i use that instead?
How do i add it? do i take some of the stuff i have already made and boil that up? it has yeast added to it already. or some clean water?

[MrC]

After a quick calculation it looks to me like the 2.49kg of extract (liquid malt extract) should have been included. You would need to include it to achieve an OG of 1.048.

Here's what I think the processs should have been:
- Mash the 1.436kg of grain (mini-mash) as per the instructions provided
- Bring to boil
- Add the hops and boil as per instructions provided

and here's what I think was missing...

- Add the 2.49kg or extract as soon as you turn the heat off & stir it until it's all dissolved
- Let its stand for 10 min to sterilise the extract
- Chill the wort down to your desired fermentation temp (approx 18-20C for an ale)
- Add the wort to the fermenter & top up to the desired volume (21.5L 'ish)
- Add the yeast & leave it alone for two weeks
- Bottle it (19L worth). I'm assuming you know the rest...

[MrC]

And how can you fix it? It's a tough one to answer but here's what I'd do.

- Get the 2.49kg (close enough will be good enough) of extract.
- Sterilise it by adding minimal water (2L maybe) and boiling it for 15min
- Cool it to the same temp as you already fermenting beer
- Add it to the fermenter and forget that it ever happened :-)

Good luck!