First Brew - too little beer, too high FG!

[sundropforlife]

recipe:

SPECIALTY GRAIN [steeped]
-- 0.5 lbs English Chocolate Malt
-- 0.5 lbs Dingemans Debittered Black
FERMENTABLES
-- 6 lbs Amber malt syrup, use half as late addition (15 min)
-- 1 lbs Lactose
HOPS & FLAVORINGS
-- 1 oz Willamette (60 min)
YEAST
-- Dry Nottingham.

OG: 1.054. after 2 weeks in primary, FG was 1.032. tried warming, swirling, etc. repitched safale US-05. 1 more week, FG is 1.030. racked it over to secondary and i find that i have like... 3.5 gallons of beer! what the hell happened?! i followed these instructions: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/SweetStout.pdf

and i ended up with this:

what gives? any way i can top up that beer with more water and have a better FG/ABV?

 

[ShinyBuddha]

First question, were you at the 5 gallon mark in your primary? One of the issues I encountered when I brewed my first batch was the loss from trub and the yeast cake which settle on the bottom. My 5 gallons of goodness dropped to 4 gallons when I racked over. This is normal. Don't top off, you'll only water down your beer. As an aside, your FG might have gone lower still if you let it sit a but longer.

 

[sundropforlife]

First question, were you at the 5 gallon mark in your primary? One of the issues I encountered when I brewed my first batch was the loss from trub and the yeast cake which settle on the bottom. My 5 gallons of goodness dropped to 4 gallons when I racked over. This is normal. Don't top off, you'll only water down your beer. As an aside, your FG might have gone lower still if you let it sit a but longer.

I did top up to 5 gallons, yeah.

 

[gypsyhead]

well then you've got to cut your OG, and your actual alcohol wont be the difference between Original OG and Topped Up FG, it'll have to be adjusted by whatever ratio of water you added to top up the carboy.

 

[baddad]

Sounds like a loss to trub, and temp differential

 

[ShinyBuddha]

I did top up to 5 gallons, yeah.

It's ok, there's bound to be a bit of a curve on the first few brews. Regarding your high FG, one of the cheapest investments is to invest in a fermetometer (aka stick on temp gauge). By knowing what range you're fermenting in you'll be able to better control the final product. Secondly, I'm not aware of what equipment you use, but if you have a large kettle brew the full batch of beer (~6 gallons accounting for evaporation). This will allow you to fully take advantage of your hops and lme/dme.

Regarding the loss if liquid, I invested in an auto-siphon early on. By inserting it gently into the primary and then slowly tilting it forward,I was able to get maximum extraction while minimizing the transfer of trub and yeast. You'll get better with practice but there will always be loss.