Supplementing with ethanol? Is that a thing

I'm transferring my first white IPA to secondary tomorrow. It smells great, but there is one problem. A really low OG. I can only assume my protein rest wasn't sufficient to break down the proteins in the unmalted grain. A friend of mine joked about adding everclear to it. I laughed but thought about it and roughly 30 oz of ethanol would put me in the range of a typical white ipa. It's kinda cheating but I worked really hard on this recipe and I want to salvage something. Is that something brewers can do in a pinch?

Topic original-gravity homebrew

Category Mac

1
answered at

First, a protein rest is based on the type of malt you use and how it was malted. It is almost never necessary for any type of malt or beer. It certainly isn't necessary for the type of malt you use for an IPA. So, whatever your issue is, it isn't related to a protein rest. Unless you have really undermodified malt (which is almost impossible to find), protein breakdown will be accomplished at "normal" mash temps.

You can certainly add ethanol of you want to...it's your beer! But you might find it adds a harsh alcoholic heat. You might be best off to do it by the glass to taste.

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