Low OG in all grain

[rramin]

I brewed a batch of all grain and my og was 1.024 and I was shooting for 1.048. I know this has probably been brought up 100 times, but I couldn't find a simple answer on the internet. Is there a calculation of DME to gallons of wort to bring the OG up?

I pitched the yeast anyways because....well....beer will happen. But I would like to know a quick way to bring this up in the future.

also....It has been fermenting for about 5 days....is it too late to throw in some boiled DME like you would do in a yeast starter?

[porkchop]

Sure, DME has a yield of 43 gravity points per gallon per pound. So one pound of DME in 1 gallon of water will produce a wort of gravity 1.043.

So if you have 5 gallons of 1.024 wort, and you want to bump it up to 1.048, you'll need to add 24 gravity points * 5 gallons, or 120 points. With the 43 points per gallon of DME, divide 120 gravity points by 43 points per pound for DME, so you'll need to add 2.79 pounds DME to bring the wort up to 1.048 OG.

No harm in adding the DME later, just account for the additional water in your calculations. It'll be closer to your intended recipe than the one you actually brewed. Adding fermentable sugar during fermentation is a common practice for making high-gravity beers, like in the 20%+ ABV range.

[rramin]

Thanks porkchop....that has been very helpful!

Does it matter that my krausen is gone and I have no more bubbling in my air lock?

[porkchop]

No, it'll be fine. You may want to give the fermenter a few good twists to kick up some of the yeast in the bottom, but it should still be full of suspended yeast anyways.

[rramin]

Cool thanks

[sneezles61]

I can't say enough for what Porkchop just showed right there. That is a key piece of knowledge to brewing that most peeps go to a brew calculator for. I'm not against them, yet If I can do the math to find what I want my ABV to be and ALSO consider my efficiency, I free to play!! Thanks PC ! Sneezles61

[tankie]

I would like to find a simplker way of doing the math.....I am mathematically challenged

[frenchie]

Roughly, 2 oz of dme in 5 gallons will raise you .001. For example, to go from 1.035 to 1.040 you need +.005, so 5 x 2 oz, or 10 oz. So however many points you want to go up, just multiply that by 2, and that's the ounces (by weight) of dme that you need to add to 5 gallons.

This calculation is probably just a little high, but will get those of us who are mathematically challenged close enough.
Yeah, that's enough math for me, I'm a language guy.Lol

Funny, I'm a builder and can do all kinds of number things in my head related to building. But with stuff like this I have to have paper and calculators to get really close.

Cheers,

Ron

[smallbatchbrewer]

[sneezles61]

See tankie, thats what git me too… How do you git 2.790698…. Why can't it just simply say 2.8? So what is it that you are adding? … Thats why I do all my math on paper, and most times use a calculator to multiply. Sneezles61

[wilcolandzaat]

No biggie just ask here on the forum. They will help

[smallbatchbrewer]

Agreed, the displayed answer in unnecessarily accurate. Calculators have the same problem, so we mentally round the number in our heads.

Don't let the unnecessary accuracy distract you from the observation that the calculation is simple. In the Excel example (above) it's

 (B2 - B1) * B3 / B4

or

 (Current Gravity - Target Gravity) * Current Volume / PPG

 (48 - 24) * 5 / 43.

or around 2 lb, 13 oz of DME.

[sneezles61]

4, way to the right, is that to help you understand the potential to the pound of DME, LME and sugar? See how things are, now I've got some crazy sizing going on too!Sneezles61

[smallbatchbrewer]

4, way to the right, is that to help you understand the potential to the pound of DME, LME and sugar?

Yes.

For larger SG adjustments, the calculation is easy - no need for those who are math challenged to be afraid .

For smaller SG adjustments, @Frenchie's reply (above) is a much simpler calculation for a specific situation - 5 gallon batches and DME. +1!.

[sneezles61]

I can do the math, I just can't manipulate the computer… Thats my big struggle… Sneezles61

[smallbatchbrewer]

When I was learning math back in school, I struggled with following units of measure through the equations. @porkchop makes it look easy. And his explanation wasn't hard to follow. So maybe if they taught math with homebrew examples, I'd feel better about my understanding of units of measure

As I look more into the math involved in brewing, it's becoming clearer to me that I don't need a computer to fix (or create) a recipe. I do, however, "need" a beer to fix a computer.