So, my friend and I brewed an Oud Bruin with the Wyeast blend that was put out this summer. Through various situations and stuff over the past 6 months, I've ended up with with about a gallon of head space. The recipe itself was all grain, but today I added two lbs total of amber/wheat dme to the carboy in 1 gallon of water to top it off. Was this a good idea? The original beer was OG ~1.050 and according to my calculations I just added 1 gallon of ~1.048
I can't say if it was a good idea...not a sour expert, but... If you added one gallon of water with two lbs DME, the water/DME mixture's gravity was about 1.088.
Oh ok. Even better. Yeah. I know it's not ideal practice, especially with clean beers, but I wanted a larger yield and I've done this before with LME with good results.
I have two 30 gallon barrels that I use for making sours. Over time they loss volume and I make it up with wort from other beers I have brewed. Does not seem to hurt.
water and DME probably no problem. just do not add straight water without boiling first. not so much for sanitary reasons but because of the added oxygen. in your case you will get a re-fermentation and you should keep track of your gravity to be certain. the small addition might not show any activity and the yeast might be sluggish. Cheers.
