So i tried my hand at an ipa today and undershot my fg by 10 points, my guess is i didnt boil off enough. I added dextrose to my fermenter to make up those 10 points, will that cause an issue? Should i have waited for initial fermentation to slow down? I think i need to RDWHAHB haha
Dextrose in primary
- Thread starter Gvan84
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Indeed, RDWHAHB!
You could use any fermentable to make up to your OG. Regular sugar, dextrose, pre-dissolved DME, honey, etc.
Adding easy fermentables later prevents the yeast from binging early on, but I wouldn't sweat it.
I prefer to add them to the fermenter, not the kettle, due to higher gravity kettle losses when transferring to the fermenter. If I want to retain flavor, such as when using honey or Belgian sugar syrups, they get added when fermentation has slowed down significantly.
Many brewers add some sugar together with their dry hops to ensure any oxygen intrusion gets scavenged due to refermentation, preventing oxidation. Especially with hoppy beers, such as IPAs, oxidation is detrimental to hop flavor and aroma.
Find out why your boil off estimate was low. I'd rather come up a bit short on volume. Not gravity.
You could use any fermentable to make up to your OG. Regular sugar, dextrose, pre-dissolved DME, honey, etc.
Adding easy fermentables later prevents the yeast from binging early on, but I wouldn't sweat it.
I prefer to add them to the fermenter, not the kettle, due to higher gravity kettle losses when transferring to the fermenter. If I want to retain flavor, such as when using honey or Belgian sugar syrups, they get added when fermentation has slowed down significantly.
Many brewers add some sugar together with their dry hops to ensure any oxygen intrusion gets scavenged due to refermentation, preventing oxidation. Especially with hoppy beers, such as IPAs, oxidation is detrimental to hop flavor and aroma.
Find out why your boil off estimate was low. I'd rather come up a bit short on volume. Not gravity.
Well i increased my strike water since my last brew and saw a 15% increase in efficiency (i was usually slumming around 65%) but i may not have had a strong enough boil to get down to volume to get my target og. I'll try this recipe again when i need to get another IPA in my keg rotation
65% is a very poor mash efficiency. 15% is a huge increase but may have come from a better grain crush rather than different mash and sparge volumes. Between water used for mashing and sparging you should come out right at your preboil volume, having extracted and drained as much of the available sugars as possible, leaving not much behind.
Boil off volume depends on a few factors, some of which you can't control or change much. It usually takes a few brews to get everything just right.
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