low OG and SG, need higher ABV

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mikes_brew

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I brewed a brown ale ex. kit on tuesday, OG was low at 1034.
yeast started on wed, great! quick and vigourous
stopped on thursday night.
decided to wait and transfer to 2nd on friday.
SG was 1016 at 80F so 1018 corrected.
according to beersmith ABV is 2.1%
there is no activity now and I will let sit in 2nd a week before bottling, any way to get my FG down to increase ABV?
:confused:
thanks
 
If it was a kit, I am surprised that your OG was only 1.034 - it's very difficult to miss your OG in an extract kit.

Did you add any top-up water? If so, did you mix the wort well after doing this before you took a reading with your hydrometer? If not, you probably just pulled a sample that had more top-up water in it, and received a lower OG reading.

How much extract came in your kit?
 
mikes_brew said:
I brewed a brown ale ex. kit on tuesday, OG was low at 1034.
yeast started on wed, great! quick and vigourous
stopped on thursday night.
decided to wait and transfer to 2nd on friday.
SG was 1016 at 80F so 1018 corrected.
according to beersmith ABV is 2.1%
there is no activity now and I will let sit in 2nd a week before bottling, any way to get my FG down to increase ABV?
:confused:
thanks

Well, you can reduce your FG but it would be very dry in the way of mouthfeel...

What you could do is brew a bigger brown ale, maybe overly high OG, and then throw them both together to get 10 gallon of the same thing... If it tastes good then don't worry about the ABV... If you want straight alcohol from it you could throw some Dextrose into it, but the resulting taste and mouthfeel... did something go wrong or was it suppose to be 1.034
 
What was the recipe? It's really hard to get a low OG for an extract kit...usually the reading is off because you didn't mix the heavy wort and the top-off water well enough.
 
rec.
3.00 lb Dark Dry Extract (17.5 SRM) Dry Extract 50.0 %
2.00 lb Light Dry Extract (8.0 SRM) Dry Extract 33.3 %
0.50 lb Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 8.3 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 8.3 %
1.00 oz Northern Brewer [8.00%] (55 min) Hops 25.8 IBU

I did top off. I used 2 gal ice to cool, worked well, (see other ice thead) and then added to top off. I may not have mixed it enough. That did occur to me.
the target was 1045.
how low FG should it be in a week, ok to bottle then?
thanks!

another q: what does control ABV?:eek:
 
Yeah, what these guys have said, i didn't think of this...

Your OG measurement is probably off... Which kit did you use?

I took an OG reading 3 times once before i realized that i hadn't stirred the diluting water into the cooled wort...


EDIT: After reading your second post, there's no way using DME did you miss your target OG, you most likely did not stir enough.... The kit should say an adequate range of the FG for bottleing... I've bottled beer at up to 1.020.... Let it clear for 2 weeks and then bottle... you'll be good...


Sugar dissolves in water, thickening the water.... As the yeast eats this sugar it replaces it with alcohol, alcohol is lighter than water... As the yeast eats the sugar it thins the solution replacing sugar with alcohol... So Sugar controls alcohol...

1.000 is water
as sugar is added this goes up but yeast will never eat ALL of the sugar which is why FG's are usually 1.010 - 1.015, which also gives you the resuting malt sweetness...
 
it was a LHBS kit, but similar to the 1st from homebrewery, Nut brown Ale. I want to try my own ext. next time, at the end of the month. I brewed this with my new turkey fryer setup and it was alot easier and hotter than the stove.
 
that recipe looks pretty normal to me...I've been doing extract kits my first 3 batches back into the hobby, and that really should've given you around the 1.045 SG the recipe stated.

I think you got a skewed initial reading, and probably a much more accurate current reading.

You bottle when the gravity is consistent 3 days in a row.
even then, you might consider a secondary to clear the beer a bit, say for 2 weeks, then bottle.

ABV is controlled by two factors: amount of total fermentable sugars, and the attenuation of the yeast. not all sugars are fermentable, and if you have more usable sugars than your yeast can handle, it will leave some behind (and plenty of sweetness in the beer).
 
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