Pumpkin Ale low gravity?

Hi Everyone,

I've got a general question about a pumpkin ale I have made (recipe below).

I took a hydrometer reading three days after brew day (when fermentation started) and just two days ago, with a total ABV that is very low.

First Hydro reading: 1.030 @ 78F

Current hydro: 1.014 @69F

According to my calculation I only have an ABV of 2-3%

Does that sound right? Did I mis-calculate?

I would like to bottle this weekend, but is there any way to boost the ABV?

Thanks!

Pumpkin Ale:

2 lb baking pumpkin
3 lb canned pumpkin
6.6 lb LME
8 oz flaked barley
1 lb crystal 60L

2 oz Mt. Hood Hops

1 c. b-sugar
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
US -05 yeast

Bake pumpkins until soft.

Bring 2 gal. water to boil. Add pumpkin canned and fresh. Add grains, steep @ 155 F for 1 hour.

Add malt extract and brown sugar.

Add 3/4 of the hops and boil 60 mins.

add last hops in 5 mins of boil.

Add spices at flameout. steep 15 mins.

Cold crash. Pitch yeast @ 45F

Five days into ferment: Add 3/4 teaspoons pumpkin spice and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

How big is the batch? Did you add top up water on top of 2G boil? Did you really pitch the ale yeast at 45 degrees?

I think your OG is incorrect. 6.6 lbs of extract in a 5 gallon batch would yield you an OG of 1.050 or so.

@ BrewThruYou I did a 5 gallon batch and topped off in the fermentor.

Also, I hastily wrote pitch temp at 45, but it could have been warmer. That was 45 on the fermometor on the side of my bucket.

nlpavalko said:

@ BrewThruYou I did a 5 gallon batch and topped off in the fermentor.

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For a 5 gallon batch, your recipe should give you a wort with an OG of at least 1.050. It is possible that your reading of 1.030 is not correct - it is very difficult to get a good reading with you add fresh water to a dense, sugary wort (no matter how much you think you mixed it up). If your wort was closer to 1.050 then your ABV is closer to 4.7%

The other possibility is that all that pumpkin absorbed a fair amount of your wort (seems like a lot of pumpkin to me). Do you remember how much water you needed to add to top up to 5 gallons?

@JLem I topped off with three extra gallons and maybe a half gallon worth of ice into the fermentor.

JLem said:

It is possible that your reading of 1.030 is not correct - it is very difficult to get a good reading with you add fresh water to a dense, sugary wort (no matter how much you think you mixed it up).

Click to expand...

This is the most likely issue. The hydrometer reading was taken from a less dense section of the fermenter and the actual OG is closer to 1.050.

Thanks for the input guys. I'll be bottling tomorrow and I'll let you know how things turn out once I try my first beer.