Sparge fail

[MikeBusby]

I am making a mild and only realised too late that I had forgotten to lift the grain basket before starting the sparge. As a result, the majority of the sparge water was only running through the top part of the grain before hitting the wort! I was only able to sparge effectively for the last 5 litres.

As a result, my pre-boil gravity is 1.017 instead of the predicted 1.031. At this rate, I will end up with a 2% beer. :-(

What can I do? I am currently in the middle of the boil. I guess I could add sugar. If so, how much should I add? I don’t have any DME, but it looks like I could get some delivered by AmZon today, but it may not arrive until 10pm. Can I reboil later and add the DME? If so, how much?

I feel a right tw*t!

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Could you put the grain in a large bucket and pour some wort in to effectively do a batch sparge? You could do this two or three times and recover quite a bit I think.

 

[MikeBusby]

I could stop the boil and let it cool a bit, then do this, I think.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Yes, you can if you’re in no rush. You could take some out, maybe put some in a metal pan and put this in cold water to speed up the cooling (or use your plate/counter flow chiller).

You could alternatively add sugar as you suggested.

 

[cushyno]

You could always recirculate, draining from the tap and pouring back through the grain basket. It will help flush some more sugars out of the grain. This may not be as effective as plain ol' sparge water, but should help to some degree.

Are you sure you're reading the gravity correctly? If using a hydrometer have you allowed for temperature adjustment for hot wort? If not the gravity may be higher than you think.