Low ABV IPA??

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cuse88

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Just took a the FG reading on my Brewer's Best IPA kit (first brew I made) and it came out to 1.016. The OG was around 1.04 or 1.05, the reading isn't precise as I took a quick reading and didn't pay attention to the final detail (rookie mistake).

From what I've computed the ABV comes in probably between 3.75-4.15 percent, which is at least 1 percent lower then I would have liked. The IPA has been fermenting for 3 weeks now, would 1 more week in the primary possibly help?

For being such a low ABV, the boozy smell is pretty strong, but doesn't come through in the taste. The sip I took came across really bitter, but was pretty drinkable. Really nice color as well.
 
Isnt there a estimated og fg that came with the kit. was it extract. did you top off with water then take a sample-could have been a wrong reading from water not mixed well with the wort.If you have a boozy smell id give it another week. Im shure it is ok. what temp did you take for the og if it was in the 80's F degrees or more you need to add on did you account for this? Also you need to take the time to do a reading if you do it.Sounds like you didnt really check well .o4-.05 is pretty far off from each other. were you jumping up and down when doing the reading from pure brewing excitement?
it also helps to journal everything you do then you can find out how to make a better beer each time you brew.
 
What were the target OG and FG? If it's been in the primary for 3 weeks, the gravity isn't going to change, it's had plenty of time to ferment out. If you want to add alcohol you could do a couple of things:

1. try *gently rousing the yeast with a sanitized spoon and see if that jump starts anything

2. Add some sugar

I'm not sure what the kit states as the target FG, but at this point I would bottle it and call it beer.
 
Isnt there a estimated og fg that came with the kit. was it extract. did you top off with water then take a sample-could have been a wrong reading from water not mixed well with the wort.If you have a boozy smell id give it another week. Im shure it is ok.

The OG was a little off due to me doing a full boil and not topping off, which was my bad and yes extract kit.

I'm sure the beer fine by the taste was just hoping the ABV would be a bit higher.
 
Assuming this is an extract kit, the only real ways to miss your OG by a lot is if you don't add all of your extract, or if you happen to end up with a larger volume than what the recipe was designed for.

So I suspect that your IPA is probably more like 1.060 - 1.075 OG. Which means 1.016 is a decent final gravity and your ABV is more like 6-6.5%
 
Assuming this is an extract kit, the only real ways to miss your OG by a lot is if you don't add all of your extract, or if you happen to end up with a larger volume than what the recipe was designed for.

So I suspect that your IPA is probably more like 1.060 - 1.075 OG. Which means 1.016 is a decent final gravity and your ABV is more like 6-6.5%

In terms of volume, I ended up with about 4.25 gallons of brew after the boil, so I know for a fact after reading a lot the past month this definitely had an effect.

Thanks for the info!
 
In terms of volume, I ended up with about 4.25 gallons of brew after the boil, so I know for a fact after reading a lot the past month this definitely had an effect.

Thanks for the info!

It would have given you a higher gravity then the kit intended, which would lead to more alcohol/volume.
 
if it was a 5 gallon kit and you only came up with 4.25 the OG had to be higher than the kit intended .. in which case 1016 is good I think so bottle/keg it up .. it's also going to be more bitter than intended since you did a full boil so you may have to let it sit for quite a while to mellow the bitterness ... but if you like it, then drink it right away .. just dont do what I did on my first one and drink 95% of it then wait a month to drink the last few and realize you should have waited a month for all of it... cheers !! .. you made beer :)
 
if it was a 5 gallon kit and you only came up with 4.25 the OG had to be higher than the kit intended .. in which case 1016 is good I think so bottle/keg it up .. it's also going to be more bitter than intended since you did a full boil so you may have to let it sit for quite a while to mellow the bitterness ... but if you like it, then drink it right away .. just dont do what I did on my first one and drink 95% of it then wait a month to drink the last few and realize you should have waited a month for all of it... cheers !! .. you made beer :)

I was expecting a more bitter beer, but in the few sips I had it was bitter and really smooth. I'll probably have 1 bottle a week to see the improvements and/or changes through the process.

I might let it sit in the bottle for 6 weeks to hopefully up the sweetness a bit and bring down the alcohol aromas.
 
I think if anything it will be LESS bitter than intended. Higher gravity boil => lower alpha acid isomerization. That is, unless the kit was specifically designed for a partial boil.
 
I had the exact same results with the same kit. That's how I found this post!! Mine seemed to stop fermenting just shy of 2 weeks and I had it in a cooler at 68 deg. I'm going to go ahead and do a secondary just for the sake of clearing it up and hopefully mellowing it out a bit.
 

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