ABV Issue

I cooked up an extract ale 3 weeks ago using 1lb. of Crystal Grains and 6lb. of light (aka golden) liquid extract. Hoping to rid my fermenter of annoying hop pellet residue, I strained the wort as I poured it into the fermenter. I caught lots of hop pellet residue and was pretty psyched that I did.

Here's where the issue is:

I took an OG reading, and it only came out to 1.038. I was unsure about this thinking it should be higher (around 1.050 or so), but let it slide at the moment because the wort was VERY cloudy with silt. I let the sample sit in the fridge to settle and clarify, but it had been tossed out the next morning by Mom.

Three weeks later, it's almost bottling time, and the FG is 1.010 (which is a spot on FG). ABV ends up calculating to only 3.668 (OG-FG x 131). I was hoping for something higher.

Do you guys/gals think the issues lies with the poor original OG reading, and the ABV may actually be higher? Or is it possible that I lost some fermentables when straining the wort?

Thanks ahead of time for your responses. And btw it tasted pretty good, but I'm not one who can really tell the ABV by tasting it flat and warm.

The fermentables wouldn't go out w/ the strainer, no, they're dissolved into the water really well... unless you lost volume in the process. I took 6lb of liquid extract in my app here and it says the OG should be 1.038, so you're spot on... were you expecting to get extracted sugars from the 1lb of crystal? Maybe there's where you were a bit short?

pompeiisneaks said:

The fermentables wouldn't go out w/ the strainer, no, they're dissolved into the water really well... unless you lost volume in the process. I took 6lb of liquid extract in my app here and it says the OG should be 1.038, so you're spot on... were you expecting to get extracted sugars from the 1lb of crystal? Maybe there's where you were a bit short?

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Hmm interesting. My only source of fermentables was the extract. I guess this brew is just a lighter one. I made the exact same recipe except with 6lb. of AMBER (medium) liquid extract, and it came out stronger (between 4-5 i think). Maybe the lighter extract has less fermentables? what do you think?

After spending some time thinking about reasons why the ABV might be lower than the previous nearly identical batch, I think I figured it out. So simple...

The first batch came out to 5 gallons exactly, while the second was a 6 gallon batch. This seems to be the reason, especially since the exact same quantity of extract was used for both. *slaps forehead* der...

The same app shows 1.041 for 6lbs of amber so yes it's got more fermentables.

thanks man what app is that?

I use BeerAlcemy for the Mac. I don't know the other apps well, but there are a few. Beer smith, beer tools pro, qbrew, etc. There's a whole section here on brewing software. Go ask there about other if you're not on a Mac, but I love BeerAlchemy. I use it on my iMac, iPhone, and iPad.

pompeiisneaks said:

The same app shows 1.041 for 6lbs of amber so yes it's got more fermentables.

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??????????????? Liquid extract has the same fermentables no matter what it is. Why the different results.

I'm confused as to what volume the OP had. % or 6 gallons?

6 lbs of LME will have 216 gravity points. Assuming he got 50% efficiency from steeping the crystal, that would be another 18 points = 234 points. In 5 gallons that would be a 1.047 wort. In 6 gallons it would be 1.039. If you got much difference from this, then your reading was wrong, or your volume is wrong.

Not sure about getting any sugar from the grains, but nontheless, what you say makes sense Calder.

The first batch was a 5 gallon batch, and came out to about 4.5% ABV, which is accurate with what you say the OG would've been. With the second batch of 6 gallons, the OG you said is nearly spot on. I think the amount of water I added after the partial boil simply diluted the beer in the second batch.

And pompeiisneaks, I'll look into that software. I also have a Mac. Thanks.

Thanks for your inputs. This is my first post on homebrewtalk and I'm glad to see that it's a helpful forum.

rhern053 said:

Not sure about getting any sugar from the grains, but nontheless, what you say makes sense Calder.

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Yes, you get sugars from the steeping grains. That's kinda the whole point of using them.

Welcome to the madness rhern053.

I probably had volume differences then too. I used my Mac on the first run, and then used my iPad on the second, so I'd guess one maybe had 5.5 gals and the other was say 5.o or something. Sorry, I was just trying to help, and therm figured it out anyway, realizing it was a gallon waters difference.