# Add Malt After Fermenting Starts?



## crash69 (23/11/09)

I umm did a dodgy multiple batch last night.. and unlike the way I would normally do it decided to just whack it together and add it up in my head as I went .. .:wacko: 

When I finished I measured my OG and it was a lot lower than I expected (1.030 for part batch1 & 1.022 for part batch2) .. I just did some quick estimations now that I've got a clearer head... and it looks like my maths last night where way off  

So would sprinkling some more dry malt (yes I'll work out how much I need this time!) onto the batches work?


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## brettprevans (23/11/09)

yup. no issues adding malt/sugars to brew once fermentation is off and running. except the small chance of picking up infection. but unlikely.
adding fermentables while fermentation is going is very common in belgian and high gravity beers. so by all means add some malt.

Im going to guess you wanted between 1040 and 1050. so i recon between 0.750kg and 1.5kg to get you those gravities ranges


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## Pennywise (23/11/09)

I've done this a few times when making Belgian ales, although I used inverted sugar that was added after about 4 days. Can't see why it wouldn't work with dry malt. I would boil it up in a litre of water and cool it before it goes into the fermenter though


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## brettprevans (23/11/09)

ive used it with malt before and just chucked it in dry. the yeast will find it. of course you could disolve it or boil it. i was lazy and cbf. worked fine.


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## crash69 (23/11/09)

Thanks guys!, I'll boil it up in some water and add it in (after cooling of course)

:beer:


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## argon (23/11/09)

crash69 said:


> Thanks guys!, I'll boil it up in some water and add it in (after cooling of course)
> 
> :beer:



I added some dry malt extract a while back to an ESB batch and I can really taste it in the finished beer. Sickly sweet flavour. I'd suggest, as you've mentioned, to dissolve in water first. I think doing it dry led to it clumping and not dissolving into the wort.


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## brettprevans (23/11/09)

it shouldnt make a differance unless you didnt give it enough time to ferment out. it doesnt matter if it clumps or not. the yeast will eat away at it. it may take a little longer but it works. as i said the last few time i added dry malt to my beers and they were fine. i even added dry dex once


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## crash69 (23/11/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> Im going to guess you wanted between 1040 and 1050. so i recon between 0.750kg and 1.5kg to get you those gravities ranges



I got myself in trouble by doing basically a double batch.. lol

What I've got is 

(Wheat beers btw)

23l batch - OG 1030 
I plan on adding 1.1 Dry Wheat Extract, I think that should bring it somewhere in the middle of the 1040-1050 range.. I might even go 800gm DWE and 300gm corn sugar  
This will be a raspberry wheat, will rack onto raspberry's later - my last raspberry wheat was a big hit with visitors  


2 x 9l batches - OG 1022 (Ginger wheat batch, I had to break it up into smaller containers to fit into my fermentation fridge  ) I figure about 600gms of DWE for each of those

That sound about right to you guys?


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## argon (23/11/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> it shouldnt make a differance unless you didnt give it enough time to ferment out. it doesnt matter if it clumps or not. the yeast will eat away at it. it may take a little longer but it works. as i said the last few time i added dry malt to my beers and they were fine. i even added dry dex once



Crud!!! I must have bottled too early then... or would I have just ended up with bombs? As with every brew I do the FG was steady over a few days. And from memory I added the LDME after 3 days and fermented for over 2 weeks. 

I wonder if it was just the flavour profile of the beer that left me with the sickly sweet taste. Although the taste is clearly identifiable of LDME.

The recipe I had was as below. The reason i added LDME was I inadvertently topped fermentor to 23L. Before LDME i had OG of 1.030 or something weak like that. 

19.50L Batch



3.5 kg 2-Row Pale Malt
150 g Crystal Malt (60 L)

100 g Belgian Aromatic

100 g Honey Malt


18 g UK Target, (11% AA), 60 min.
18 g UK Northdown, (8.5% AA), 15 min. 
18 g UK Challenger, (7.5% AA), 1 min. 
9 g UK Challenger, (7.5% AA), dry hop in primary fermenter

9 g East Kent Golding, (4.75% AA), dry hop in primary fermenter 

Wyeast 1968 London ESB Ale


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## brettprevans (23/11/09)

crash69 said:


> (23l batch - OG 1030
> I plan on adding 1.1 Dry Wheat Extract, I think that should bring it somewhere in the middle of the 1040-1050 range.. I might even go 800gm DWE and 300gm corn sugar
> This will be a raspberry wheat, will rack onto raspberry's later - my last raspberry wheat was a big hit with visitors
> 
> ...


sounds fine. actually kleiny's idea of adding gradually say over 3 days is a good idea.



argon said:


> Crud!!! I must have bottled too early then... or would I have just ended up with bombs? As with every brew I do the FG was steady over a few days. And from memory I added the LDME after 3 days and fermented for over 2 weeks.
> 
> I wonder if it was just the flavour profile of the beer that left me with the sickly sweet taste. Although the taste is clearly identifiable of LDME.


not neccessarily. i bottled an underattenuatted beer once and got a sweet taste. no bottle bobs luckily and it took a while for that sweetness to die away.


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## Kleiny (23/11/09)

citymorgue2 said:


> it shouldnt make a differance unless you didnt give it enough time to ferment out. it doesnt matter if it clumps or not. the yeast will eat away at it. it may take a little longer but it works. as i said the last few time i added dry malt to my beers and they were fine. i even added dry dex once



If your yeast had become inactive and dormant then all you are doing is adding sugar and sweetening the beer.

If it was a high grav beer your yeast will die as the alc content gets stronger.

If you add too much sugar at once you can cause a layering effect on the top of the yeast cake slowing the yeast activity or even stopping it all together leaving you with unfermented sugar and a sweeter beer.

One of these 3 issues above may have caused what you have found argon.

The idea is to add little by little over a couple of days and make sure that it is well mixed into the original wort.

As for the OP the OG was low and the target OG is alot lower than what would have an effect on the yeast, so go for it and add what LDME or Dex you want just not maybe all at once. I would say if you where to add 700g do it in 2 batches 350g once on the first day and once on the second. After the first addition make sure that you have some signs that fermentation is underway again.

Goodluck
Kleiny


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