Blending beer to fix high FG.

[j_dub4t]

Took my first go on a new mash tun, and overshot my gravity out of the mash. I watered it down before the boil and ended up with extra beer, no problem.

I was brewing a german pilsner and was shooting for around 1.009 FG. The beer ended up at 1.013 and is sweeter than I wanted.

I wanted to brew a really low gravity pilsner of the same bitterness (1.024 OG shooting for 1.005 FG) and blend the two batches together to hit that 1.009 FG that the first batch was supposed to hit. 10 gallons of german pilsner sounds like a delicious mistake to me!

My problem is that I dont want to water down the alcohol content of the beer by adding such a small beer to an already lower ABV pilsner. My plan is to add sugar to the second batch to boost the ABV. My calculations are looking like adding about 2 lbs of sugar to the second beer to boost the ABV.

Most people's concerns with adding sugar is that it will make a beer thin. Since I am shooting for an FG of 1.005, thinning out the beer is basically the point. If I use proper fermentation techniques, does anyone see any problem adding this much sugar to a beer with such a low gravity?

Thanks!

 

[Yooper]

I'm not sure you could even taste the difference between 1.013 and 1.009, unless the beer was underbittered and had a hint of sweetness. I would be very hesitant to blend this with a very low ABV beer if you wanted a drier crisper feeling to it.

 

[j_dub4t]

Thanks for the quick response Yooper!

I agree with what you are saying, but my hope was to boost the ABV of the second beer with sugar. By my calculations I would end up w 10 gal of 4.7% beer.

The reason I am considering adjusting this at all (besides the fact that I am anal) is that my family is full of big drinkers. Most of my brews make everyone "too full". I've always associated this problem with a higher FG than most beers.

They know beer, and can pound 6/7% IPAs with no problem. So I know that i'm not catering to Bud Light drinkers here.

Do you think that diluting the beer would help its drinkability?

 

[Yooper]

Thanks for the quick response Yooper!

I agree with what you are saying, but my hope was to boost the ABV of the second beer with sugar. By my calculations I would end up w 10 gal of 4.7% beer.

The reason I am considering adjusting this at all (besides the fact that I am anal) is that my family is full of big drinkers. Most of my brews make everyone "too full". I've always associated this problem with a higher FG than most beers.

They know beer, and can pound 6/7% IPAs with no problem. So I know that i'm not catering to Bud Light drinkers here.

Do you think that diluting the beer would help its drinkability?

No, I think diluting the beer may water it down. If it's too "thick" now, carbonation can really help but it really sounds fine like it is to me. Of course, I can't taste the beer but a pilsner at 1.013 doesn't seem out of line at all and is actually in line with the BJCP style guidelines for German pilsner.