2kilos short!

[Mountain]

Hi,

This is my first post so be gentle with me!

Anyway, today I decided on a combination of Marris Otter and Crystal Malt, with a little Light Chocolate Malt and Caramel Malt.

My wort is now cool and I have just taken the OG .....it is quite a bit lower than I had calculated. The combination of shopping lists, and a moody 5yr old didn't help when I was filling the mash tun this morning. well.........a 1kg bag each of Marris Otter and Crystal got left behind

Left as things are the beer will be a little too weak for me.

I was thinking of perhaps adding some extract or DME to beef it up a little. However, I won't be able to visit the brewshop until Wednesday(Saturday today!), so it will be three days into the fermentation by then!

I have never added any extra fementables into an actively fermenting wort before, so I'm unsure what will happen.

Will this do bad things to my beer?
How will it alter the flavour?
Will it mess up the fermentation process?
Or....will it be OK?

Any ideas greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[196osh]

Adding fermentables to the ferment should be ok as long as you disolve in a bit of water before hand or it'll clump up and be a pain to break up.

Just a quick question. How much Crystal is in the recpie? 1kg seems an awful lot for a recpie unless its a big batch or a massive OG.

[Mountain]

Hi,

Thought it would be OK, but having not tried before I just wondered what may happen.

Yes, I was aiming for an OG of around 1.066. A darkish malty ale. I ended up with an OG of 1.046.

4kg Marris Otter-now actually 3kg!!
1kg Crystal-now actually 0kg!
250g Pale Choc
250g Caramel

For 5 gallons.

I'm either tempted to add a 1.2kg tin of extract, or just leave it as it is a go with a 4.3%-ish beer which isn't the end of the world.

[196osh]

I personally would just leave it. But is totally up to you. Wouldn't be detremental I dont think.

Also just for future refrence that is quite a lot of crystal. I think if I remember correctly 20% is the max you can use in a batch. You are at just under 20% so it may have been quite sweet and cloying and take a while before it is drinkable.

[trucker5774]

I would settle for what you have. It should still make a good beer. The crystal even if you had added the missing pale would have been a touch high.........but if you were after a sweeter and by the looks of it a high gravity, then go for it next time...........I love to experiment

[Mountain]

Yeah, I think I might just leave it........will make a good 'everyday' beer.

I have used quite a high percentage of crystal(not above 20% though) a couple of times in the past, with good results, but I did leave it 10days in primary, a week in secondary and a good 2 months in the bottle. I think time, combined with a high IBU took care of the sweetness.

PS. I didn't know about the 20% crystal 'rule'. I'll bear that in mind in the future

Cheers