German Alt - can OG be fixed?

Hi. I just brewed a German Alt. All went well until I added the top off water. I’ve been doing a few different brews and reading a lot and working with a friend, and for some reason 5.25 gallons was stuck in my head, but the recipe called for topping to only 5 gallons. So I had a target OG of 1.052 and ended up with only 1.040 (and I did test the gravity after thoroughly mixing/aerating the wort, so I’m fairly confident it wasn’t a low reading because of diluted wort at the top). I just finished the batch, and I have added the yeast. So, I was wondering if it’s too late to maybe make a small batch of high gravity wort and add to the primary, or am I ‘stuck’ with a batch of German Alt ‘Lite’? It does still taste decent. Thanks for any advice. I’ll check back throughout the evening.

You can certainly add some extract or a small batch of high gravity wort at this point. Good idea. Go for it.

You mention just adding extract. Can I add the extract straight, or do I need to make a small batch of wort?

Oh, and if I can just add extract, how much should I add? If I need to make a small batch, what would be the suggested target SG? Thanks for any advice!

I searched and found other posts about simply adding DME to the wort, so I did. One of the posts I found talked about a Droid app called Brewzor that has a gravity correction feature, so I downloaded that and plugged in my numbers. It told me to get from 1.040 to 1.052, I needed to add 23 oz of DME. Fortunately, I only had about 10 oz left. I went ahead and added that, aerated again, and took another reading, and it had gone to 1.054. Not sure what’s up with that, and I’d like to know to be able to control it next time, but if I can’t, I’m at least glad it’s close to target now. Still tastes good.

Thanks for the help!

HMMMMMMMMM dme to fix og problems…nice trick to know…Tank :cheers:

Since you get 8 points from 1lb of DME in a 5G batch, then 10oz. should give you another 5 points.
So before the addition your SG was probably 1.049- not very far from your targeted OG. Even though you were sure about your mix, you probably did have some stratification.
But no biggie. Your batch is very slightly stronger than predicted, rather than very slightly weaker.
Doubtful anyone could tell the difference.
You made beer, and Altbiers are great! :cheers: