Incredibly strong IPA - Help!

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!

Although you said you like the final product which is the only thing that matters in the end. I would recommend (cause you asked) leaving it alone. If you had left it at 3.5% you could still have a good tasting beer but it would have been so much easier to analyze what went wrong. After making all those it’s easy to lose track what worked and what didn’t. If the desire to do something is so strong than make one change and leave it.

We all do it, I’m trying to get better at it. Worst case I tip the beer out if it’s awful but even then I’ve learnt that what I think is crap others seem to like. I don’t see tipping it out as a waste so long as I learnt something and can pinpoint what I did wrong. Tipping it out and not knowing what caused it is the worst possible outcome.

Let me see if I got this right: You started with a kit that uses 4# of DME? And added 3 more, plus 3/4# of sugar? For a 5 gallon batch, this would give an OG of approx. 1.068. So an FG of 1.023 would give you ~5.8% ABV.

It may have tasted stronger due to hot alcohol flavors that result from your own fermentation process. Impossible for me to say.

I found this line rather funny:

I want to brew session beers - not butt-kickers.

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And yet, you doubled the fermentables in a nice balanced session beer recipe. What were you thinking???

Don't worry, I'm not being critical. I learned a LOT in my first year of brewing - about the brewing process, and also about what I like in a beer. I'm still learning. But at this stage of your brewing career, you should be following recipes, not adulterating them. Plenty of time for that later!

Yeah, I know. I knew as soon as I tipped the beaker of dextrose in that I was screwing up. But frazier - are you saying that 3/4 cup of dextrose was all it took to raise the ABV that high?

Thanks for the responses guys. Still hoping to find somewhere that tells me how much DME I should be adding.

I brewed 1 batch of Munton's Gold and I never will brew another batch. Personally, if I were you, I'd stay away from those Munton kits. I would go with more of the reputable online homebrew stores, like Auston Homebrew or Morebeer.com. Then I would follow the instructions to a 'T'. Can't go wrong.

nospacehere said:

Yeah, I know. I knew as soon as I tipped the beaker of dextrose in that I was screwing up. But frazier - are you saying that 3/4 cup of dextrose was all it took to raise the ABV that high?

Thanks for the responses guys. Still hoping to find somewhere that tells me how much DME I should be adding.

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What exactly are you trying to find out? How much DME to add to this kit you just brewed? Next kit, I would receommend getting one that is more like what you want without having to add anything.

I would have added even more DME....barleywines are fun

I recommend picking up some brewing software - you can calculate the expected ABV based on fermentables and yeast. You also might want to consider a 15 minute boil of a sugar solution rather than pitching in raw sugar.

nospacehere said:

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!

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Ya, search beer brew calculators. Put 1lb of DME in with a 5 gallon batch and the yeast you used. It'll give u how much alcohol it added.

nospacehere said:

But frazier - are you saying that 3/4 cup of dextrose was all it took to raise the ABV that high?

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No - I guess I mis-read your post. It sounded like you added 3# DME to what was already in the recipe. If all you added was a little dextrose, then you only upped the ABV by about 0.3%

4lbs of kit + 3 lbs DME + a little sugar is going to give you a 6ish% IPA. That is on the low end of an american IPA ABV level.

If you like session beers, that might be too much for you, but it certainly isn't an incredibly strong IPA.

Out of curiosity, what temp was the beer fermenting at?

No, you're right. Last night it sure felt like an incredibly strong IPA though. After two beers I was pretty slicked. That just doesn't happen. I'm usually good for at least three. pssh

Anyway, it fermented in the low to mid-sixties. Thanks for the responses, guys.

PA49erfan - I added all that extract because I was told you have to have three pounds of fermentables in your mix. So that's why I asked in my OP - does the kit can count toward that?

nospacehere said:

No, you're right. Last night it sure felt like an incredibly strong IPA though. After two beers I was pretty slicked. That just doesn't happen. I'm usually good for at least three. pssh

Anyway, it fermented in the low to mid-sixties. Thanks for the responses, guys.

PA49erfan - I added all that extract because I was told you have to have three pounds of fermentables in your mix. So that's why I asked in my OP - does the kit can count toward that?

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Yes, those kits are supposed to be self contained so they contain all the fermentables. Also, you said you added even more sugar after it was in the 1.1's. I would think you are in the 7% range.

"Yes, those kits are supposed to be self contained so they contain all the fermentables."

no, they aren't. That line of kits is 1.8 kg - about 4lb. You add 3 lbs of "fermentables" to that to get up to an IPA strength.

If you prefer session beers, you probably just shouldn't brew IPA's kits. It's kinda like brewing a stout and then asking why it came out so dark. That is just the way they are supposed to be!

Was this partial boil with top off? If so then your original gravity was probably off because of it not mixing well. If it is 7% then you would be drinking the equivalent of three 4.5% beers for each two you have. It sounds pretty delicious by the way.

nospacehere said:

PA49erfan - I added all that extract because I was told you have to have three pounds of fermentables in your mix. So that's why I asked in my OP - does the kit can count toward that?

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jms5180 said:

Yes, those kits are supposed to be self contained so they contain all the fermentables. Also, you said you added even more sugar after it was in the 1.1's. I would think you are in the 7% range.

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^^^This.^^^

billl said:

"Yes, those kits are supposed to be self contained so they contain all the fermentables."

no, they aren't. That line of kits is 1.8 kg - about 4lb. You add 3 lbs of "fermentables" to that to get up to an IPA strength.

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So you are saying the Muntons kit that he purchased did not include all the DME and/or LME he needed? He needed to get more? I remember on my kit (which was my first BTW) it had the OPTION of adding more sugar to up it another 1% ABV. But to make the kit, I did not have to purchase anything more.

That's what I would think. I bought it on the first day I bought everything. I brewed a Coopers "Lager" first, then this one. It would be nice if there was a simple chart that said "1 pound of DME adds 1% ABV" or something.

Kaconga - yes, it is delicious. I was ready to swear off my go-to Newcastle last night. haha

You can see what it looks like in my video if you're interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV7fLt4Yhjg

If this is how strong an IPA is supposed to be, then fine. I'll suck it up. (literally) I'll just have to man up and work on my range!

1 pound of dme in 5 gallons yields .9% abv at average attenuation. Your results will vary.

I suggest you get some basic brewing software. I use Brewr on my droid phone to make recipes. It also has a timer function for adding hops to the boil. There are literally dozens of programs designed for home brewers and they simplify the process a lot. Just make sure you learn the math about brewing too. How to Brew by Palmer is available free online and it has lots of good info for the technical side of brewing. I recommend buying the book though because the nomographs are incredibly useful and easier to use in physical form.

The can + 3 lbs of dry malt extract or 3.3 pounds of liquid malt extract is pretty much the standard. Adding 3/4 lbs. of additional sugars should have little or no affect on the flavor. I generally toss in a pound of dextrose or clear candi sugar to cans on top of the malt extract to boost the ABV a bit.

The cans by themselves are only intended for smaller batches if I am correct. I recall reading that the can alone is only good for as much as 3 gallons and additional fermentables are required for 5-6 gallons.

nospacehere said:

That's what I would think. I bought it on the first day I bought everything. I brewed a Coopers "Lager" first, then this one. It would be nice if there was a simple chart that said "1 pound of DME adds 1% ABV" or something.

Kaconga - yes, it is delicious. I was ready to swear off my go-to Newcastle last night. haha

You can see what it looks like in my video if you're interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cV7fLt4Yhjg

If this is how strong an IPA is supposed to be, then fine. I'll suck it up. (literally) I'll just have to man up and work on my range!

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I like the label in your video. Looks like somebody read the Dark Tower series as much as I did. Looks like Roland on your Gunslinger IPA label. Nice!

Tipsy after 2? My mathematics won't do anything here but my electrical engineer estimating background gives that a 6-8% (if it were me).

Drink up. Instead of a session you made a woman catcher.

"So you are saying the Muntons kit that he purchased did not include all the DME and/or LME he needed? He needed to get more?"

Yes. I googled the "kit". It's 1.8 kg of hopped extract in a can. That is right at 4lbs. You aren't making 5 gallons of IPA with 4 lbs of malt extract.

You are right though about most new, american "kits". They have separate bags of malt, hops, steeping grains etc. For those, you don't add anything extra.

billl said:

"So you are saying the Muntons kit that he purchased did not include all the DME and/or LME he needed? He needed to get more?"

Yes. I googled the "kit". It's 1.8 kg of hopped extract in a can. That is right at 4lbs. You aren't making 5 gallons of IPA with 4 lbs of malt extract.

You are right though about most new, american "kits". They have separate bags of malt, hops, steeping grains etc. For those, you don't add anything extra.

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That's interesting. I guess it's another reason not to get the Munton's kits. You could make 5 gallons using 4lbs of malt extract, but it's going to be extremely week. Typically I have used a minumum of 7-8lbs of LME. I guess I am just surpised that is all they supply. Yeah all the kits I have bought since then, I never had to purchase anything separately. The only exception is when I made a Pumpking ale and I had to purchase pumpkin.