I just brewed my first all grain batch after investing a lot of time and money in building my own system. Despite having a very active fermentation and hitting my OG targets I have almost not alcohol content. I'm not giving up but I need to understand what I did wrong before trying again. I'd be very appreciative for any help anyone can offer.
I had trouble getting the mash temperatures my brewsmith software listed right. I undershot it and tried adding more hot water unsuccessfully. I eventually had to pour off much of the soup and heat it in my brew kettle while stirring continuously so as to not burn the grains. I eventually got the temperature right and the mash seemingly went fine. I took a BRIX reading when transferring to the brew kettle and it appeared correct. The boil went fine and my OG in the carboy was exactly what I was told to expect.
Fermentation started very quickly and was extremely active, lasting a surprisingly long 2 weeks. When I racked to the secondary I took another reading and it indicated almost no alcohol. I let sit for about a month and then bottled. At bottling the BRIX was also telling me the ABV was low, 1.5% and it tasted as such.
After a couple of weeks I tried my first bottle. While the taste was excellent it has almost no alcohol.
How can there be so little alcohol when the fermentation was so active? Any ideas as to what went wrong and how to improve for my next batch?
Thanks for your help
Matt
I had trouble getting the mash temperatures my brewsmith software listed right. I undershot it and tried adding more hot water unsuccessfully. I eventually had to pour off much of the soup and heat it in my brew kettle while stirring continuously so as to not burn the grains. I eventually got the temperature right and the mash seemingly went fine. I took a BRIX reading when transferring to the brew kettle and it appeared correct. The boil went fine and my OG in the carboy was exactly what I was told to expect.
Fermentation started very quickly and was extremely active, lasting a surprisingly long 2 weeks. When I racked to the secondary I took another reading and it indicated almost no alcohol. I let sit for about a month and then bottled. At bottling the BRIX was also telling me the ABV was low, 1.5% and it tasted as such.
After a couple of weeks I tried my first bottle. While the taste was excellent it has almost no alcohol.
How can there be so little alcohol when the fermentation was so active? Any ideas as to what went wrong and how to improve for my next batch?
Thanks for your help
Matt