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Author Topic: Increasing Gravity of a Pale Ale  (Read 1988 times)

tbone3169

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Increasing Gravity of a Pale Ale
« on: December 05, 2010, 06:16:38 pm »
I brewed a pale ale tonight and wound up diluting my wort too much when topping it off to 5 gallons(boiled 3, added 2).  The starting gravity is currently 1.050 and I was shooting for a starting gravity of 1.075. 

The recipe calls for the addition of 1/2 lb of brown sugar on day 2.  Can I increase the amount of sugar required on day 2 to up the gravity to where it should be?  Or is there a better/more efficient way to increase my gravity to the desired starting point?  I was hoping for a target abv of 8.5% and don't think I am going to reach that where my gravity is tonight.

Any tips or help would be appreciated.

Offline Hokerer

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Re: Increasing Gravity of a Pale Ale
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2010, 06:33:54 pm »
Would you consider just being happy with the 1.050 (should give you somewhere around 5%) pale ale?  That'd probably be your best bet.  The 'style guidelines' for an American Pale Ale say you should be between 1.045 and 1.060, so your targeted 1.075 is high anyways.

If you really just want to increase the gravity for the sake of a higher ABV, you're going to need to make some significant additions.  If you've got it, go ahead and add enough DME to get the gravity up to where you want it.  Alternatively, you could add sugar but, for the amounts you'll need to add, your beer is probably going to turn out very "thin".
Joe

tbone3169

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Re: Increasing Gravity of a Pale Ale
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2010, 06:48:56 pm »
Thanks for the advice. It is mostly just curiosity since I was so off from the recipe I was going by. Sounds like the best bet is to let it stay as is especially since it tasted good when I sampled the hydrometer sample.
Thanks again for the advice.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Increasing Gravity of a Pale Ale
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2010, 12:32:56 am »
What was the recipe?  Since you did a partial boil, I'm assuming this was an extract batch?  Unless you had a lot of steeping grains, it seems more like that it wasn't adequately mixed after you added water and that's why the hydrometer reading was low.  Post the recipe and we can help you figure it out.
Tom Schmidlin