Hello! I have just got my first hydrometer and decided to do a brew today with my leftover grain, otter marris and carramalt.
My first OG reading is 1.012 I know this is staggaringly low so I was wondering.
Can I add more surgar or some fruit juice to this to bring up the OG?
Is there a way to save this?
And if not is there any use for a 1% beer?
The recipie I followed didnt call for any sugar or DME or LME,
I think ive over sparged the mash
Any help would be greatly appreciated. But if its dead its dead 
thanks in advance.
How many pounds of grain in the recipe, and how many gallons of wort were you aiming for?
2 pounds of grain and I only made a 1 gallon batch, I had about a pints excess on the trub
That’s crazy low. What does your hydrometer measure in pure water? Does the wort taste sweet at all? There either was hardly any conversion or there’s a measurement error.
Looks like about 20% efficiency assuming 50/50 maris otter and caramalt.
If you have a pound of DME to toss in there and give a quick boil, that might give you something closer to 1.050-ish.
I wouldn’t bother with sugar or fruit juice.
If it was me, I’d dump it or maybe use it for a yeast starter.
I dont have any DME this batch was just to use my dreggs, ill check my hydrometer in water and see if it is accurate and see if its faulty.
If nothing else its a chance to learn so Ill do some more with it tomorrow and see.
Are you sure you are using the hydrometer correctly. Mine has 3 different scales on it. You may be reading the wrong scale. Is the hydrometer floating? You cannot over sparge unless you are truly just diluting the wort.
Okay so in water the hydrometer is sitting at 1.000 so the reading is accurate, I have pitched it last night anyways just to see what happens.
So far there is zero signs of fermentation if I order some DME would I be able to chill my batch, rack it off and add the DME then re-pitch the yeast? Or wpuld that level of activity oxidise and ruin any chance of saving the beer?
it looks like after pitching last night my reading is 1.008
Tasting the brew it is very very bitter, so obviously not enough sugar.
Sorry to say, I’m not sure you need to worry about saving the beer. Just try add the DME and see what happens. DME hates cold water however. I would go with LME.
Brill thank you ill order some LME and see if I can salvage it but if theres no action after a few days ill just bin it and chalk it up to experience
I want to know if the malt was ran through a mill… What was your mash temp, and how long? Even at 2lbs you should’ve been at 1.050, or there about… OR as you say some left over grains, from a previous brew? Like spent barley? Sneezles61
The grains looked milled, I didnt mill them myself.
The grains were steeped for 20 mins in cold water and then heated to about room temperature, maybe a bit warmer for 20 minutes.
When I say left over grains they werent from a previous mash like a partigyle it was some unspent grains that I got from a friend , they hadnt previously been used.
Actually could the age and the fact the bags had been opened make a difference?
There’s your problem. People mash in the 149-155 degree F range for an hour. There is no cold soaking, room temperature part unless one is trying to kettle sour and even your process doesn’t sound right for that.
Even steeping grains for extract kits are longer and in the 150s.
You need to reread your instructions and tell us where you got that process from.
Ahhh bloomin heck! Heres me trying to preserve the enzymes by not boiling it too soon! Right oh thank you very much ill get a 1 gallon kit on order and try again thanks everyone!
Also it looks like im the problem the instructions say 69°C and I went to 68°F! A foolish mistake 
but we learn from our mistakes
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This^^^^. Get back up off the ground, dust yourself off and dive back in. We learn from brewing(and reading about brewing). Most recipes read like a detailed cookbook entry. The extract recipes from our host are pretty detailed, and even I was able to make a drinkable beer 5 years ago!
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Thank you! I shall! I have to say its a great community on here! everyone is super helpful and that is enough to keep me trying even if I fail miserably for the first few attempts
It will be worth it in the end. Now as much as the metric system makes sense…
Did you know that the unit of an inch was determined by the length of 3 grains of Barley? There was a time in history when everyone knew what a grain of barley looked like.
“One of the earliest such definitions is that of 1324, where the legal definition of the inch was set out in a statute of Edward II of England, defining it as “three grains of barley, dry and round, placed end to end, lengthwise”.”
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