Adding more wort after primary fermentation

[AnthonyCB]

I brewed an extract based IIPA of my own recipe. I only have a 4 gallon capacity so I topped up the difference with water and took a density reading with my wine thief. I think the wort was not well mixed and this reading ended up coming from near the bottom of the fermenter, so the number was much higher than expected. I diluted a few times, but gave up with an OG that was still higher than I initially intended.

Two weeks have passed the beer has fermented nicely. It began to dawn on me what I had done wrong with my OG readings. Subsequently, I've taken more density readings and put a sample in my friend's refractometer. I think my OG was actually closer to 1.07 rather than the 1.077 I intended and the 1.083 that my hydrometer registered. This will make a nice 6.5% or so IPA, but not what I was originally intending.

I was planning on leaving it in primary for another two and a half weeks or so as it seems to be the general advice over here. It has occurred to me that I could probably toss in another couple of pounds of DME or DME and sugar boiled in a relatively small amount of water (say 1/2 gallon) to bump up the alcohol content a bit to better match the level of hops. Am I going to ruin a good beer? Obviously this has been done before, does anyone have any advice for me? Should I use just DME or can I toss in a bit of sugar too (I don't think it would be a bad thing if the beer was a bit drier than it is)? Should I reset the fermentation clock and leave it in for another 4 weeks rather than another two (I know, check me hydromether, but my guess is that any sugar addition should ferment out in a week, how much time should I give it to condition before bottling)?

Thanks,

Anthony

 

[jaycount]

I would leave it alone and drink it as-is. If its an extract recipe and you used the right amount of water and extract then the OG came out right, regardless of the reading. It's really that easy.

Even on my AG beers, if I come short on efficiency I might add a little extract to the brew to bring it up if I have it handy, but if not its no big deal. It's still beer, it'll be good. Toying with it increases the chance of infection or poor tasting beer, especially if you add plain sugar.