Kit didn't produce the % that I want

Working on a munich dark lager from a kit. Its been sitting for about a month now, and is ready to go into bottles.

Started at 1.040 and now its at 1.016 which should give me about %3

This is a bit lower then I was expecting. I was hoping for the 4.5-5% range.

Two questions:

Is there anything I can do at this point to increase this?

For next time, is there anything I can do if I use the same kit? (ie add more goodies at the beginning? and what would those goodies be?)

Thanks

Can you post the recipe and method if it was AG?

What kit? Who's?

What was the kit, and what ingredients came with it? Did the kit advertise what the alcohol % should be?

Assuming you followed the directions to a t, incuding adding all of the extract, using the correct amount of water, your alcohol % should be exactly what the kit advertises. Did it say what your OG should have been? A lot of times, new extract brewers don't mix properly when taking the SG. This is especially common when top up water is used. If not mixed fully, your OG reading will be inaccurate.

what is suppose to be the OG and FG. You can add some sugar to increas the ABV but it will dry it out a little which is okay since your FG is 1.016

flander said:

Is there anything I can do at this point to increase this?

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You could try re-pitching with a different yeast strain.

Edit: *Your FG is already at an acceptable level, so this may not do any good for you. Edcculus might be right. Maybe your OG measurement was off. What the the OG supposed to be?*

flander said:

For next time, is there anything I can do if I use the same kit? (ie add more goodies at the beginning? and what would those goodies be?)

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Add some corn sugar next time. It is almost 100% fermentable.

First of all, no there's nothing you can do now other than drink it and enjoy it anyway.

Second of all, for next time, it depends. One of three things could have happened: You could have messed up somehow, the kit could just be wrong, or it could be designed to produce a 3% beer and everything actually worked just right. If you could post the recipe, we could see what OG it theoretically should have produced to see whether you need to modify the recipe or your technique.

Edcculus said:

A lot of times, new extract brewers don't mix properly when taking the SG. This is especially common when top up water is used. If not mixed fully, your OG reading will be inaccurate.

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Experienced brewers also make the same mistake sometimes.

And have you calibrated your hydrometer? It's not uncommon for them to be a few points off, so your FG may be lower than you think.

-a.

It was The Munich Dark Lager extract kit. The instructions say S.G. should start at 1.055-1.040 and end below 1.020. which it did.

I guess its just designed to come out this way.

Do they send you the wort, and you just add the yeast? If so you got hosed, that kit claims to be 1.055, there's no way it should be lower than that.

As long as you used the correct amount of water for the kit, you should be pretty close to 1.055. Hitting your target gravity is pretty reliable with malt extract. If you used a concentrated wort and topped it off with water, you could have very easily gotten a reading without it being fully mixed. This can cause a low OG reading.

Sounds like you measured the OG when the wort was still hot. Here is a chart for the difference.

Table 18 - Hydrometer Temperature Corrections
T °C Delta G T °F T °C Delta G T °F
0 -0.0007 32.00 25 0.0021 77.00
1 -0.0008 33.80 26 0.0023 78.80
2 -0.0008 35.60 27 0.0026 80.60
3 -0.0009 37.40 28 0.0029 82.40
4 -0.0009 39.20 29 0.0032 84.20
5 -0.0009 41.00 30 0.0035 86.00
6 -0.0008 42.80 31 0.0038 87.80
7 -0.0008 44.60 32 0.0041 89.60
8 -0.0007 46.40 33 0.0044 91.40
9 -0.0007 48.20 34 0.0047 93.20
10 -0.0006 50.00 35 0.0051 95.00
11 -0.0005 51.80 36 0.0054 96.80
12 -0.0004 53.60 37 0.0058 98.60
13 -0.0003 55.40 38 0.0061 100.40
14 -0.0001 57.20 39 0.0065 102.20
15 0 59.00 40 0.0069 104.00
16 0.0002 60.80 41 0.0073 105.80
17 0.0003 62.60 42 0.0077 107.60
18 0.0005 64.40 43 0.0081 109.40
19 0.0007 66.20 44 0.0085 111.20
20 0.0009 68.00 45 0.0089 113.00
21 0.0011 69.80 46 0.0093 114.80
22 0.0013 71.60 47 0.0097 116.60
23 0.0016 73.40 48 0.0102 118.40
24 0.0018 75.20 49 0.0106 120.20

flander said:

It was The Munich Dark Lager extract kit. The instructions say S.G. should start at 1.055-1.040 and end below 1.020. which it did.

I guess its just designed to come out this way.

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I haven't been able to reconcile:
1) Folks saying that with an extract recipe you can't miss the OG (and if you did, it's likely due to error or incomplete mixing) with
2) Kit instructions giving ranges instead of a single OG number.

OP: Plug the recipe into a recipe calculator and assume the calculated OG was the real OG. Then make sure you're taking the FG correctly (no chance at this stage that things have NOT gotten mixed up).

JiveTurkey said:

I haven't been able to reconcile:
1) Folks saying that with an extract recipe you can't miss the OG (and if you did, it's likely due to error or incomplete mixing) with
2) Kit instructions giving ranges instead of a single OG number.

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Perhaps they were generic instructions for a range of beers with OG's varying between two limits. If you follow the link, you will see it is a 1.055 beer.

-a.

I agree with most of the comments above. Most likely the error was with the OG. If it wasn't properly mixed, the heavier wort would be at the bottom and a considerably weaker mixture at the top- resulting in a low OG reading. Now, if the OG was really 1.055(which I hypothesize was), then a FG of 1.016 would give a 70% attenuation... Which should be correct. Also, it gives a 5.1% ABV which would fall in the expected range. With extract kits, you really have to mix the top off water in well- a minimum of two minutes of vigorous stirring in my book.

Thanks for the information! This helps for next time.

Am I missing something? According to the website they ship you already boiled and hopped wort, you just add the yeast.

wildwest450 said:

Am I missing something? According to the website they ship you already boiled and hopped wort, you just add the yeast.

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I just realized that too. OP, is this what you did? Did you add water? Could you post some of the directions that came with your kit? If this is just sterile packaged wort, there really isn't a need to take the gravity.

either:
-you didn't take the reading right
-you got hosed
-you topped off when you weren't supposed to

From what I gather from looking at that site, all you do with the kit is add yeast and let it ferment, then bottle it. That gives you almost no control over what you end up with. I would say it is the way it was already made to be. If you want more control over the final product, you should probably step up a notch in the type of kit you are using.

flander said:

Started at 1.040 and now its at 1.016 which should give me about %3

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Maybe I'm confused, but if you start at 40 doesn't that mean your beer is 5.1% ?

If its at 16 today and 16 tomorrow, I'd say its ready to bottle.

BellTap said:

Maybe I'm confused, but if you start at 40 doesn't that mean your beer is 5.1% ?

If its at 16 today and 16 tomorrow, I'd say its ready to bottle.

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His ABV is around 3.15% right now based on 1.040 and ending at 1.016.

brewagentjay said:

His ABV is around 3.15% right now based on 1.040 and ending at 1.016.

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Oh right, I forgot to do the math. I wonder how it tastes?

It tastes good!

I figured out the instructions are a generic instruction sheet that they send out with all of their kits.

I probably did not mix it good enough before I took the OG.

On the site they say you can add more or less water depending on what you want as a result. I went with the "normal" instructions where you add two gallons of water.

At this point I am happy with the result, next time I would probably only add one gallon of water.

There's no way you'd miss the OG with that kit. They are designed to make 5 Imperial (6 US) gallons (or 23 liters). Unless you added so much water that you had way more than that, then you just didn't mix fully.