I did an extract brew last night of a Stout and I was targeting 1.095 as my SG, but it only came back at 1.090. I don't think its too big of a deal, but was wondering if there was an additive that I could put in that would not impact the flavor but would increase to the target? Sugar? Not sure. This is only my 3rd batch and probably should have just added less water, below the 5 gallons, but the other two times I needed closer to 6+ gallons to get to my target so thought 5 would be ok. Any thoughts or ideas are really appreciated. Thanks!
You could add a simple sugar solution in after its to room temp to get a few extra points. I personally wouldn't worry about it. I hope you have a nice big yeast starter.
Could be you just didn't have it mixed up all the way. Happens all the time with extract brews. You should really just stick to the volumes dictated by the recipe because the only way to fuck up O.G. on an extract beer is to use the wrong amount of water. Anyhow. Just leave it be. You'll be fine.
This wouldn't be luck. All other things being equal (and assuming the OG really was low), it would be expected.
0.005 is not a lot when you have 0.090. You are within 5% of your target OG. Proceed, and keep following your plan.
Let me clarify, depending on the yeast he used it will fully attenuate at a particular percent relative to the starting gravity. I've had yeast sometimes fully attenuate better than what was expected, sometimes under, it depends on the conditions the yeast are under. Since he double pitched the yeast I suspect that the yeast will fully attenuate beyond the expected FG for his recipe.
Certainly pitch rate can affect attenuation. But I suspect that by 'double pitched' he meant two smack packs or vials (with no starter), which probably just got him close to a fairly standard pitch rate.
If you really want to, you could add 1/2# of sugar or honey to get the OG up, but it could also lead to more fusels/heat on the tongue.
