Adding malt extract during fermentation

Mashing
1

I brewed the houblonmonstre all grain on Sunday. When I went to mash I realized the grain had come uncrushed. I tried my best to crush it by hand, but the OG ended up being about 45 points below the spec sheet. Sheet = 1.085 and my OG was 1.040.

I looked on line and calculated how much extract to add to five gallons to bump the gravity up post hoc.

DME ~ 45 points per pound/gallon X 5 gallons = ~ 225 points needed. So I bought 6 pounds of DME and its coming in a day. Going to use about 5 1/2 pounds of it.

In the meantime I have a few questions about exactly how to feed my yeast this precious sugar.

First I should mention that the yeast have already chewed through the available sugar and most of the rigorous primary fermentation has stopped.

Here is my plan. I’m going to siphon about a gallon of the wort and add as much extract to it as I can and then bump up the volume as necessary to saturate the extract.

I am then going to heat it to some undetermined temperature. I realize if I boil it it will sanitize the wort, but I will lose the alcohol around 170 and probably some of the other flavor/hop components.

Should I heat it and keep it under 170?

Also, how long should I heat?

I also have some extra hops (summit). Do I need to add any hops to this mixture or would that be pointless? I know if this works the hop utilization will be messed up, but I can’t think of any way around it.

Is this even going to work? Let me know flaws in the plan, better alternatives, or if I need to provide more info. Thanks in advance!

2

I might consider brewing a separate extract batch with your DME, hopped to the same level, and blending the two after fermentation has finished (on both). You will probably need to add some hops to it as well. You could rack your first batch off the yeast into a secondary, rack your new beer onto that yeast cake, let it finish, then rack to the secondary where the first batch went.

Your plan might work though, give it a shot.

Also, not to be a word nazi, but as soon as you add yeast to wort, it is no longer wort, it is beer.

3

You may be overcomplicating this.
You added the called original called for amount of hops, right? Then currently you should have a weaker, hoppier brew than expected. If you add just the right amount of DME you should be back up to your predicted range.
So, unless I’m missing something, I think you should just boil your DME in a minimal amount of water(maybe 1 G?) for 30 minutes or so, and add it to your beer.
Oh wait… Now I see it. You’re adding an extra gallon volume. So refigure your original IBU for 1 gallon and add the appropriate amount of hops.
Now, I think it should get you in your range.
Good luck!