Recovering Lost Volume

[BrewCanuck]

My latest batch ran into a problem that has hit me a couple times in my admittedly short brewing history. I has a good mash resulting in plenty of pre-wort at my target SG but because I don't have a proper boil kettle I boiled off too much wort and wound up under my target post boil volume but at my target SG. I could add water to top up to the target but that would dilute the beer. I already poured out the "Extra" pre-wort so thats of no use.

So here is what I was thinking of for a solution and I'd like input. Maybe I'm missing something:

I need an extra 4L (~1 gallon) to get up to my target volume. I'm thinking I'll do a 20 minute boil of about 4.5 L with some extract sugars with the plan to have a resulting wort that is the same gravity as the OG of my first wort. I'm not planning any hops becuase, I'm going to add the ingredients I planned for secondary, in this case peanut butter powder. The slight dilution of the hops should be balanced by the peanut butter flavour. I'm also using the sugars that I used in the original batch (Molasses & Maple Syrup). Cool the whole thing down to the current fermenting temps and add it into the primary.

This way:
- I've sanitized my secondary addition
- Boiled to get a hot break
- Cooled to get a cold break
- Have the same gravity as the OG of the original wort
- Used some of the same sugars from the original wort (shouldn't shock the yeast)


Anyway, thoughts? Questions? Should I just not worry about the volume?

Thx
BC

 

[Osedax]

I wouldn't worry about the volume. You could do what you are planning as a sort of staggered addition. If you do it, be careful of oxygenating the beer. No way of telling what stage the yeast are in and they may not need oxygen.

You are getting excess boil off because you are using multiple pots. The increase in surface area is creating higher evaporation rates. I read your other post about your process.

 

[BrewCanuck]

Yeah, that's basically what I figured. Just thinking I should add volume based on hop balance. My last batch of the base beer here has been pretty good, a little malt forward with a decent hop balance. I don't want the hops to overwhelm the peanut butter and/or malt taste with the hop flavour.