undershot beer

hello there i have a problem which i hope you guys can help me out with to decide how to fix something.
i brewed a batch of coopers irish stout can kit on october 4th. what i did was make a 2 gallon pearle hop tea, then i added my fermentables such as the coopers can, 454 grams of dark dme; which is a pound and 2 pounds of a dark treacel i made on the stove a week before. Then rehydrated my nottingham yeast with correct water amount and temp.
My temp strip on my fermenter wasnt giving a temp so i thought i killed the yeast, but the next morning it dropped to 74 degrees and started fermenting very aggressively for the next four days. At which point it has stopped ferementing. I was going to leave it in the primary for a month then bottle after a hydrometer test of course.

Well i changed my mind and was going to leave it for 2 weeks then bottle for 2 weeks. I just did a hydrometer test to see where i am and the reading was at 1.018 at 70 degrees. my starting gravity was 1.040 at about 90 degrees so the correct reading would be 1.044. At those readings im sitting at a 3.2%abv number not what i am trying to get more like 5 or 6 percent.
I usually use 3 pounds of dme and 2 pounds of raw cane sugar for this coopers can kit and i usually get between 5 and 6 percent abv and never had a problem before. I still have the coopers yeast that came with the kit.
My question could i add more sugar and then pitch more yeast or just dump more sugar into the fermentor and let it sit for another week. i know i need to dry hop it because the ounce of perle i boiled is faintly in the brew or its just to early to tast the hops fully.

I just dont know what to do and have never had this problem before with my beer. Can someone help me out thanks. I tried this in a different section and no response so i tried moving it. So sorry if this is a repeat to some

UPDATE: i did another hydrometer reading and it said the same thing 1.018 at 72 degrees. This is the fourth week that its been in the fermentor and no changes. Do i have a stuck fermentation or what do i need to do to help fix this. The beer tasted green with some hop flavor to it. So it tasted alright but not where it should be. Am i screwed at a low gravity beer, or can i do something about this? Thanks for the help.

insnekamkze86 said:

hello there i have a problem which i hope you guys can help me out with to decide how to fix something.
i brewed a batch of coopers irish stout can kit on october 4th. what i did was make a 2 gallon pearle hop tea, then i added my fermentables such as the coopers can, 454 grams of dark dme; which is a pound and 2 pounds of a dark treacel i made on the stove a week before. Then rehydrated my nottingham yeast with correct water amount and temp.
My temp strip on my fermenter wasnt giving a temp so i thought i killed the yeast, but the next morning it dropped to 74 degrees and started fermenting very aggressively for the next four days. At which point it has stopped ferementing. I was going to leave it in the primary for a month then bottle after a hydrometer test of course.

Well i changed my mind and was going to leave it for 2 weeks then bottle for 2 weeks. I just did a hydrometer test to see where i am and the reading was at 1.018 at 70 degrees. my starting gravity was 1.040 at about 90 degrees so the correct reading would be 1.044. At those readings im sitting at a 3.2%abv number not what i am trying to get more like 5 or 6 percent.
I usually use 3 pounds of dme and 2 pounds of raw cane sugar for this coopers can kit and i usually get between 5 and 6 percent abv and never had a problem before. I still have the coopers yeast that came with the kit.
My question could i add more sugar and then pitch more yeast or just dump more sugar into the fermentor and let it sit for another week. i know i need to dry hop it because the ounce of perle i boiled is faintly in the brew or its just to early to tast the hops fully.

I just dont know what to do and have never had this problem before with my beer. Can someone help me out thanks. I tried this in a different section and no response so i tried moving it. So sorry if this is a repeat to some

Click to expand...

You made 2 gallons of hop tea then added a coopers can, a pound of dark dme and two pounds of dark sugar (basically). Is that a recipe you use often? Sounds...interesting.

You relied on a temp strip on the fermenter or did you use a real thermo? Isnt 74 extremely high for notty?

The two gallons of hop tea...you made that with one oz of perle?

Im sorry, could you just go over the whole process again? This is confusing to me.

insnekamkze86 said:

UPDATE: i did another hydrometer reading and it said the same thing 1.018 at 72 degrees. This is the fourth week that its been in the fermentor and no changes. Do i have a stuck fermentation or what do i need to do to help fix this. The beer tasted green with some hop flavor to it. So it tasted alright but not where it should be. Am i screwed at a low gravity beer, or can i do something about this? Thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

At 1.018. the beer is finished. You can bottle it anytime. The fermentables are gone, and at 1.040 you won't get an ABV above about 4%.

If it started at 1.044 and finished at 1.018, that would give you an ABV 3.4%.

If you want a higher alcohol level, the best course would be to start with more fermentables in the beginning, before fermentation begins. If you use 8 pounds of fermentables (extract) in 5 gallons, the ABV would be more like 6%. If you skip the simple sugars, it'll taste better besides.

could i add more sugar then pitch more yeast or is it just stupid at this point of time?

mr i tried making a 6 gallon batch but ended up with only 5.5 gallons. I usually use about 5 to 6 pounds of fermentable not just the 4. I boilded 2 gallons of water and added a ounce of perle hops for 30 minutes.
Afterwards i mixed in the 2 pounds of dark trecel, pound of dme and pound of brown sugar. Then mix it all up then transfered to the fermentor, at which time i topped off with spring water which ended up being 21 liters or 5.5 gallons. Then i believed the temp was 70 degrees before i pitched yeast but had no activity and there was no reading on the temp strip. Till the next morning at which time the temp strip read 74 degrees. At that point it fermented aggressivly for 4 days then stopped. Rest is history.

I didn't add any more sugar to the batch and re pitch yeast. It he the first time I've ever make a beer this low in gravity before but oh well. Next time i will know better. Anyways it sat in the primary for 5 weeks and it just got bottled and will sit for another 2 weeks.

I ended up priming each bottle which cane sugar. I had a post official scale so I was good with measurements. I needed 4 ounces of sugar for the carbonation I needed. Which comes out to 113 grams, which is about 2.26 grams per bottle. I mocked a few bottles for priming and was able to get 2.1 grams with 3 tea spoons of sugar and just did every bottle the same. I did the mock measurement 4 times and got the same result so I won't have any issues with the bottles. I ended up bottling 52 bottles, which took me 2 an half hrs because ly bottling wand tip broke and had to figure something out. But got it done it will be a good beer once done being carbonated just light in alcohol.

Yes I believe the temp was 90 when I pitched and I was trying to pitch at 70 which I thought I had at the time but must of been wrong since it took 12 hrs to get to 74 degrees which it started fermenting at.

Ya usually when my wort is at 70 degrees and I pitch the yeast i get fermentation within 30 minutes. I used a different type if yeast this time. My krausen ring was like 4 inches on the fermentor. I will crack one open in a week to see how it is then i provavly leave it for another weeks afterwards its drinking time lol.