nospacehere
Member
Not sure if this was answered somewhere else, but I can't find anything that describes exactly what I'm doing.
I brewed an IPA from Munton's Bitter IPA kit. I added 3 pounds of DME and 3/4 cup of sugar (I know, stupid - but let me tell you why).
After fermenting for a good week or so, I took a reading and got somewhere around 1.016 FG. My OG was 1.044. My calculation told me this was around 3.5% ABV, so I wanted to bump it up a little. I tossed 3/4 cup of sugar into the carboy (secondary) and let it sit a few days. I then took another reading, and got 1.023. This was only my second batch, so I am not purporting to know what I was doing.
Anyway, after a few days I moved to a bottling bucket, stirred in another 3/4 cup dextrose for priming, and bottled. Well, after 12 days I drank a couple. They're some of the best tasting beers I've ever had. However, they are ridiculously strong. I was either WAY off in my readings, don't know HOW to read what the hydrometer is telling me, or did something wrong.
What I'm looking for is this I guess: does the 4-pound kit count toward your fermentables? Is this a nearly eight-pound beer? Was three pounds of DME way too much? I'm trying to figure out how to gauge so I'll know how much to put in next time for a normal average strength beer.
I have no way now of knowing how strong my beer is, but it feels like it's up in the 7s or so. I was pretty drunk after two of them. Is there some guide that will tell me how much alcohol a pound of DME will produce? I want to brew session beers - not butt-kickers.
Thanks for any help you guys can offer. Cheers!
I brewed an IPA from Munton's Bitter IPA kit. I added 3 pounds of DME and 3/4 cup of sugar (I know, stupid - but let me tell you why).
After fermenting for a good week or so, I took a reading and got somewhere around 1.016 FG. My OG was 1.044. My calculation told me this was around 3.5% ABV, so I wanted to bump it up a little. I tossed 3/4 cup of sugar into the carboy (secondary) and let it sit a few days. I then took another reading, and got 1.023. This was only my second batch, so I am not purporting to know what I was doing.
Anyway, after a few days I moved to a bottling bucket, stirred in another 3/4 cup dextrose for priming, and bottled. Well, after 12 days I drank a couple. They're some of the best tasting beers I've ever had. However, they are ridiculously strong. I was either WAY off in my readings, don't know HOW to read what the hydrometer is telling me, or did something wrong.
What I'm looking for is this I guess: does the 4-pound kit count toward your fermentables? Is this a nearly eight-pound beer? Was three pounds of DME way too much? I'm trying to figure out how to gauge so I'll know how much to put in next time for a normal average strength beer.
I have no way now of knowing how strong my beer is, but it feels like it's up in the 7s or so. I was pretty drunk after two of them. Is there some guide that will tell me how much alcohol a pound of DME will produce? I want to brew session beers - not butt-kickers.
Thanks for any help you guys can offer. Cheers!