ABV calculations for kit IPA

[JRTurner1234]

Hi all,

I've just brewed the Brewmaker IPA kit and am trying to understand the ABV calucations.

My starting gravity was 1.040 and my finishing gravity was 1.008 (before bottle conditioning).

Using http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/ I've calculated that my beer is 4.2%.

The kit instructions say that the beer should end up at about 4.8%.

Does anyone have a view on what is going on here?

Thanks,
Jamie

 

[Clonefan94]

What did the kit say the OG should be? I'm assuming you took that reading yourself? Reading could be off because of stratification of the wort. To get to 4.8%, with that finishing gravity, you'd need to have had an OG of 1.045. Which is possible you were at, just your wort wasn't mixed well. Reason I say that is because, as long as your volumes are correct the kit's gravity should be pretty close.

 

[Hammy71]

What Clonefan said. It's often difficult to get a true OG reading with extract kits. The extract/sugars used in the kit have a pretty known value. So, as long as you followed the directions, you can safely use the OG that came with the directions. Try using the kits OG in your calculator and see what you get.