my O.G. is kinda low any way to up my final abv?

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basilchef

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My og came out to around 1.040. thats way too low. is there something I can do to boost the overall abv? Im a little worried I may have to scrap the batch.
 
You can always just boil some regular table sugar and add it. It will only add alcohol and will dry up the final product. If it was me id just let it be, but if it's purely alcohol you're concerned with you can add table sugar during fermentation. But once again, id say leave it.
 
LimerickBrewCo said:
You could add some DME, it could affect flavor making it more malty but would do more than just up the alcohol.

This. I've done this like 3 hrs after pitching and it worked well
 
i dont have access to dme right now, my local store is closed and it will be close to a full 24 hrs after i pitched the yeast before i can buy and add any. and table sugar sounds cheap and like a bad overall idea. i feel like i would trust a different form of "sugar" over that. what are my time frames/ windows in which i can fix this?
 
i dont have access to dme right now, my local store is closed and it will be close to a full 24 hrs after i pitched the yeast before i can buy and add any. and table sugar sounds cheap and like a bad overall idea. i feel like i would trust a different form of "sugar" over that. what are my time frames/ windows in which i can fix this?

oh and do i have to wait to open the primary? again about 24 hrs after i pitched.. or can i just boil a dme or lme with a bit of water then cool it and add it directly and snap the lid back on? will i have to repitch? sorry about all the questions. and thank you so much.
 
why is 1.040 low? what was the target? what style?

if its just ABV you're after pour the cane/corn/honey/white grape juice to it , repitch D-47 and dryhop with warrior till you cant taste it.

But the real question is why didn't you hit the target # and how to fix it next batch. we need more info for that
 
why is 1.040 low? what was the target? what style?

if its just ABV you're after pour the cane/corn/honey/white grape juice to it , repitch D-47 and dryhop till you cant taste it.

But the real question is why didn't you hit the target # and how to fix it next batch.

its an ipa of sorts 2 row and crystal 40 and some caramalt extract with a ton of hops. no actual target because i wasnt following a recipe. but ive never brewed such a low og. ive been reading that beers with that low of an og usually finish with a fg of 1.010 which is about 4% according to the calculator. thats less then a bud lite. i cant pt my name on a beer my friends a family will extricate before they receive their desired effect.
 
caramalt is amber extract so there are some unfermentables in it but not enough to be a big deal.

I'm assuming its a partial mash because if it was all grain you could have upped the OG with the caramalt.

you mashed the 2 row, not just steeped it with the crystal, correct?
otherwise its just color and starch. you can check it with a couple drops of full strength iodophor so see if you got conversion.
 
yes partial mash, i mashed in the whole bag of mixed grains for 60 mins keeping it around 152 degrees then sparged with two gallons of water (168) and brought back to a boil took off heat and added lme. from there brought to a boil and started my hop additions. topped off to a little over five gallons and cooled the wort.
 
ABV is not the only stat for homemade beer. In fact my home brewery all of the "patrons" judge the product on taste. I'd leave it be. Sub 5% beers are especially great for the summer when it's hot and you tend to drink em fast.

You need to know what you're going for if you want to have predictable results. Use beer calculus at hopville.com to calculate the stats of your recipes so that you can know what to expect.
 
You can add table sugar, corn sugar, dme, ect... at anytime, doesn't mater if fermentation has been going for 24 hours or four days, the yeast will take care of it. I use table sugar in trippels, golden strongs, IPAs, and IIPAs with very good results. I recommend keeping it to 15% or less of your fermentables, although you can go upto 20% if you had a higher OG to begin with. Boil some water, add sugar, cool to 70ish, add to your fermenter, and give it a gentle swirl.
 
Was this a partial boil? OG readings are notoriously unreliable when topping up with water due to improper mixing.

If it were me, I would follow Garty's advice and just go with it. You may end up with a wonderfully sessionable IPA. Then again, most of my beers start out between 1.035 and 1.050 so I am definitely biased toward quaffers.
 
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