Alcohol content.

[jclarkejnr]

Has anyone had any success getting the correct ABV on advertised ale/beer/wine kits ? I’ve done a few now and while they taste fine, the alcohol content falls way short of what it should be by 0.5 - 1%. This is despite working to the instructions exactly. Do you add less water or add more sugars, DME or LME etc ? They subsequently taste ever so slightly watered down.

 

[myndflyte]

I think there's way too many factors involved to hit it on the head every single time. First of all, are you hitting your starting gravity exactly? Second, yeast is a living organism and there are ranges to their attenuation. The age of the yeast, how it was stored and treated in transportation and whether you made a starter or not can all affect attenuation. Not to mention how well you're able to control fermentation temps will change things as well. Then if you're doing all grain, there are even more factors before we even get to fermentation.

And how sure are you that it tastes watered down? Without having one kit advertised beer next to yours, I don't know how you'd be able to tell. Plus if you're falling short, then that means there is more sugar left which makes me think the opposite of watered down.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

The ABV is dictated by your OG and FG. I've hit the numbers exactly on some kits, but on the last one my FG was a bit short so I ended up a little short on ABV but still in the ballpark of where it was supposed to be. They're just guidelines and I think as long as you aren't way way off the beer will taste fine.

 

[kh54s10]

First I wouldn't consider .5 - 1% way short. Also a little less ABV should not make your beer seem watered down. There are a lot of factors that will come into brewing that will affect the final outcome. Taste should be foremost and ABV very low on the list.

How are you measuring for ABV. There is a scale on a triple scale hydrometer that is for potential alcohol, that is not telling you what the ABV of the beer is.

When I have used kits I have gotten very good beer. I never really was concerned about the ABV and didn't calculate for it. If you are only after ABV, select a kit with higher ABV. If you want to cheap out add a couple pounds of corn sugar, it will up the ABV, but I wouldn't want to drink it.

Make sure you are using a quality kit, control temperatures very well, which requires an accurate thermometer. Make sure you are ending up with the proper volume. If using a bucket that came with a scale, check it. They are often off by quite a bit. Pitch the proper amount of healthy yeast and control fermentation temperatures and you should see a marked increase in quality.

 

[TGFV]

Also, how much water are you using? You could honestly be ending up with more water used and more beer which could be the problem.

So if you should be bottling 19l but bottling 21 then it's going to be lower

 

[davidabcd]

Has anyone had any success getting the correct ABV on advertised ale/beer/wine kits ? I’ve done a few now and while they taste fine, the alcohol content falls way short of what it should be by 0.5 - 1%. This is despite working to the instructions exactly. Do you add less water or add more sugars, DME or LME etc ? They subsequently taste ever so slightly watered down.

My name is davidabcd and I'm an extract brewer.

First, you're making good beer, so that's awesome.
I've done Brewer's Best kits, quite a few, and have hit the OG and the FG and thus the ABV (often listed as a range and not a specific number) per the recipe. Honestly, if I don't hit the high-end number of that range, I am bummed for a few days, so I understand. But it is possible to hit those OGs in the kit recipes.

If anything, and I'm not trying to be a know-it-all, smarty pants here, I tend to have a slightly higher OG with a FG still per the recipe. I do not know why.

It would be very helpful, though not feasible, to see the entire brewing day on video in an instance such as yours. Then one of these super-experienced brewers (not me) could give you sound advice.
But like someone mentioned, 1% ABV shouldn't be called "way short" either.
I don't worry that mine go over the OG and I wouldn't worry if they were slightly under.

You shouldn't need to add more DME or LME but I can understand using the hydrometer to determine your exact fill line (slightly above or slightly below the five-gallon mark) to hit your OG. I use a flashlight when filling to see the difference between the foam and the actual water level.

Full disclosure: I don't use a temperature calibration chart to adjust my gravity readings to make sure they're exact. However, when I take gravity readings, I've asked myself, why do they always match what's in the recipe? They should be off by some amount. Never have been though. I do not know why and am not actually interested in why.

Cheers!

 

[ancientmariner52]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. To use the ABV scale on a hydrometer, you must take readings before and after fermentation. The difference between the two will be the ABV, not the actual reading after fermentation. Personally, I only check ABV to fill in a blank on the log sheet. If the beer tastes good, I'm happy.

 

[davidabcd]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong. To use the ABV scale on a hydrometer, you must take readings before and after fermentation. The difference between the two will be the ABV, not the actual reading after fermentation. Personally, I only check ABV to fill in a blank on the log sheet. If the beer tastes good, I'm happy.

Are you talking about OG-FG then multiplying by 131.25 to figure ABV? That's the way to calculate it. Say 1.060 is the OG and then the beer finishes fermenting for a FG of 1.010. You would do 1.060-1.010 and get .50. Then multiply .50 by 131.25 to get 6.5 ABV.
If this isn't what you mean, sorry. I'm absolutely not trying to offend. I didn't quite get "...not the acutal reading after fermentation." Unless you mean, in my example, 1.010.

 

[ancientmariner52]

Are you talking about OG-FG then multiplying by 131.25 to figure ABV? That's the way to calculate it. Say 1.060 is the OG and then the beer finishes fermenting for a FG of 1.010. You would do 1.060-1.010 and get .50. Then multiply .50 by 131.25 to get 6.5 ABV.
If this isn't what you mean, sorry. I'm absolutely not trying to offend. I didn't quite get "...not the acutal reading after fermentation." Unless you mean, in my example, 1.010.

That, I believe, is the best way to do it. I was referring to the mention above about the 'potential ABV' scale. You have to use the before and after numbers to reach actual ABV. I trust your method more.

Edit: I didn't answer the question, did I? What I mean is, you can't just read the ABV scale in the finished beer and get a meaningful result. It's the change that matters, just as in the OG FG method. I could have worded it better.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I always add .5 ABV due to priming sugar. It’s possible that the kits you’re using also consider the ABV you get from priming sugar.

 

[kh54s10]

The potential alcohol scale is something that I always ignored. I found this, it seems really inaccurate.

 

[jclarkejnr]

I may need to check that I’m topping up with too much water - I now don’t trust the measure marks on the side of my bucket. Maybe go up to 22L instead of 23L ? Temperature during fermentation was a rock steady 22’, In primary for 10 days. Racked into barrel with priming sugar. Using the above equation I get 3.96% instead of the 4.3% advertised so I’m now not too worried. It does taste nice after conditioning over the last week or so (which is my main concern), albeit a little cloudy. Hopefully that should settle over the next 3 weeks then I’ll bang it in my beer fridge set at 12’ using an inkbird.

 

[davidabcd]

I may need to check that I’m topping up with too much water - I now don’t trust the measure marks on the side of my bucket. Maybe go up to 22L instead of 23L ? Temperature during fermentation was a rock steady 22’, In primary for 10 days. Racked into barrel with priming sugar. Using the above equation I get 3.96% instead of the 4.3% advertised so I’m now not too worried. It does taste nice after conditioning over the last week or so (which is my main concern), albeit a little cloudy. Hopefully that should settle over the next 3 weeks then I’ll bang it in my beer fridge set at 12’ using an inkbird.

Glad it tastes nice.
I Googled the conversion of 5 gallons to liters and it's 19L (basically). Per TGFV, just to eliminate the most obvious error, do the kits you use say, "top the wort up to the 23L level with cold water?" or something like that?
If that's not the issue, I wouldn't start subtracting water automatically but you could start at 22L (or even less), take an OG, and adjust; some recipes even suggest it.

I don't think there's any real reason the marks for volume would be off but, sure, check them against a container you trust.
Let me know.
Thanks.

 

[jclarkejnr]

It does say to top up to 23L although I’m in English gallons as opposed to American gallons. I’ll probably do a batch at 21L next time and see what happens. Like I say it tastes pretty good. Still a bit cloudy. I’ll give it another week at room temp then put it in my fridge for a few weeks, see what happens. What fridge temp do you recommend for ale ?

 

[ncbrewer]

Malt extract has a ppg number - points per pound per gallon. These are gravity points, and as the name implies, a given amount of pounds extract per gallon yields a specific sg, or gravity points. If you use the right amount of extract (all of it, if it's a kit) and have the right total volume, the original gravity will be correct. If you're reading something different, it's either a measurement error or you've used the wrong amount of something. The most likely problem if you're topping off is sampling the wort. It's really hard to mix the top-off water in well enough to get a representative sample. In fact, I haven't checked OG of an extract batch in many years because I feel the calculated gravity is more accurate than can be sampled, using the top-off method.

 

[abdominousabel]

It’s possible that whoever made the kit has a boil rate faster than yours so say if they put 23L and end up with 20L post boil and you follow the 23L and end up with 21L. You may want to add less water to start with. Maybe you can book off more water but DO NOT boil longer once you add hops because the alpha acids change depending on boil time.

 

[kh54s10]

Extracts are often very difficult to get mixed well so your OG number could easily be off. If you get a diluted layer your OG will be low, If you get a saturated layer your OG will be high. Then any ABV calculation will be off.

If you use all the ingredients and get the right volume your OG should be very close to what the kit says it is.

Check your volumes. I don't understand your US gallon to English gallons - just use liters, that is the same regardless of what side of the pond you are on.

Get a measuring cup with liters on it. Fill the fermentation vessel to the first mark in liters and see if it matches. If the marks are in gallons, determine which, US or English, and do the same using the proper measuring cup.

As to your question of fridge temperature. When are you talking about? For fermentation look up the optimum range for the yeast you are using and control the wort temperature to the middle of the range during fermentation. After bottling keep the bottles at room temperature for at least 2 weeks then chill one bottle to test. 3 weeks or more for certain styles may be necessary. For drinking you can chill to recommended temperatures per style of beer or just chill them to whatever you like.