First timer woes

[Ariza-Poet]

So my very first time around a friend and I Brewed a saison (all extract kit)

And a stout (all extract kit) supposed to be 8.6%
but the instructions said pour 2.5 gallons of cold water in the fermenter then pour the wort over it to cool. We started out boiling 3 gallons of water.
It ended up making near 6 gallons of beer.

When we took the FG reading it was something like 2.01 so clearly wrong.
Tasted fine but will prob come out to 6% or so.
We'll find out. I bottle today after work.

Now the issue is. As a first timer I can't RDWHAHB cuz I have none haha

Guess I'll raid the cellar and maybe throw back some ten fidy Brooklyn chocolate stout in the mean time

I'll admit these are some of the best problems I've ever had

 

[flars]

I would not bottle that beer today. There is something amiss with your FG number. 2.01 is not possible.

Are you using a refractometer or a hydrometer for SG readings? Are you using the brix scale on a hydrometer? Brix is used in wine making.

 

[menerdari]

That reading is not right. 6% would have a starting gravity in the mid 1.05s
I am not sure about your kits instructions but you should always do it the other way around.
add water to the semi cooled wort. That way you control volume and SG as you go.
I would guess it will come out just fine in the end.

 

[Mexibilly]

Once your beer ferments out you'll be left with considerable trub that has settled out, so if your initial volume was 6 gallons you'll likely have 5 or 5.25 to bottle.
I'll assume you measured with a hydrometer. What was your starting gravity? Was it unrealistic as well?
If you didn't thoroughly mix the wort and water you may have sampled the denser, undiluted wort.
Your final gravity would be measured tonite when you bottle, so check it again and compare to your original. If you've not gotten 2 readings a day or so apart that show no change you'll risk bottle bombs due to over pressurization from continuing fermentation combined with your priming sugar carbonation.

 

[Ariza-Poet]

everything came in a kit including hydrometer.

We did the saison and the OG and FG readings were spot on and it tasted fine and bottled great.

The stout I'm thinking maybe the temp was wrong or something when we took FG

The OG was low.
Instructions said 1.089
We ended up with 1.071

 

[kh54s10]

Something does not add up. 2.5 gallons of water and 3 gallons before boiling (it would be less after the boil) only add up to 5.5 gallons.

Also there is no possible way you could have gotten to 2.010 for the OG much less for the FG. You are reading the hydrometer wrong.

You will need to provide the right volume and gravity numbers before we can be of help.

With an extract if you use all the ingredients and end up with the right volume your original gravity will be right.

In the future put the cooled wort into your fermenter then top up to the correct volume rather than adding the wort to the water.

 

[Ariza-Poet]

That reading is not right. 6% would have a starting gravity in the mid 1.05s
I am not sure about your kits instructions but you should always do it the other way around.
add water to the semi cooled wort. That way you control volume and SG as you go.
I would guess it will come out just fine in the end.

Yeah after we did it and ended up with way too much I googled it and realized we shoulda done it that way but live and learn
And like mexibilly said. At least I got beer haha

 

[Ariza-Poet]

Something does not add up. 2.5 gallons of water and 3 gallons before boiling (it would be less after the boil) only add up to 5.5 gallons.

Also there is no possible way you could have gotten to 2.010 for the OG much less for the FG. You are reading the hydrometer wrong.

You will need to provide the right volume and gravity numbers before we can be of help.

With an extract if you use all the ingredients and end up with the right volume your original gravity will be right.

In the future put the cooled wort into your fermenter then top up to the correct volume rather than adding the wort to the water.

I think it ended being more cuz of all the malt (it was a lot haha)
I'll post up the FG when we bottle later
But not really looking for help per se. Just posting about my experience. Hopefully I can figure out my abv but not stressing it.

Thank you for offering the help tho I greatly appreciate it and have been enjoying this community very much and ur post being a prime example why

 

[flars]

Brewers Friend has a good ABV calculator, and other good tools.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

 

[Mrin]

Some thoughts:

1. If it is a full extract kit you should be able figure it out by using kit targets and adjusting for volume. Kinda hard to miss them with extract since you're not getting much out of the steeping of specialty grains.

2. Gravity readings are hard when you are going partial boil and topping off wort going into the fermenter. You can mix and mix and really, it doesn't mix very well. My second brew was a partial mash rye saison. I mixed and mixed and my readings came up something like 30 points above target. Turned out FKNA good. I wouldn't worry about it.

3. Get a refrac - they're pretty cheap on amazon.

 

[bacgabe]

Are you sure you are not reading the ABV scale on the hydrometer? One side of the hydrometer sometimes shows you the average ABV you can expect from your starting gravity if it fully attenuates. Depending on how that scale is calibrated, 2.1 ABV might equate to about 1.016 (assuming your hydrometer bases expected ABV on complete attenuation).

All that to say, spin your hydrometer around and see if it has gradient markings showing 1.000, 1.010, 1.020, 1.030 and so forth. Use that side. If you did and that's where you got your 2.1 reading, just ignore this post.

 

[Ariza-Poet]

Are you sure you are not reading the ABV scale on the hydrometer? One side of the hydrometer sometimes shows you the average ABV you can expect from your starting gravity if it fully attenuates. Depending on how that scale is calibrated, 2.1 ABV might equate to about 1.016 (assuming your hydrometer bases expected ABV on complete attenuation).

All that to say, spin your hydrometer around and see if it has gradient markings showing 1.000, 1.010, 1.020, 1.030 and so forth. Use that side. If you did and that's where you got your 2.1 reading, just ignore this post.

we may have read it wrong. But the saison we did was spot on on both readings.
When we did the stout it was way off.
We tried spinning it. Reading it from a sample, reading in the bucket
and we kept getting that 2.01 reading.

not too worried as when we tasted a sample of it it was tasting fine.

and it fermented like a monster, even blew its lid :rockin:

 

[Ariza-Poet]

So we definitely misread the reading haha. Think we had one too many last time.
So we're looking at 1.021

OG 1.070
FG. 1.021

So we're looking at
6.43% abv.

Now just the carb waiting game

 

[Ariza-Poet]

I can finally RDWHAHB
My stout came out great.

It has some decent legs on it so maybe I read the OG wrong at first.
It is possible that the abv is closer to the 8.6 is was designed to be.

Regardless taste is great as is appearance and aroma.

I'm very pleased with the outcome

The saison was awesome too
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