Beer stronger than suppose to be

[Steve3730]

Made my first beer. Just an APA kit from brewers best. Estimated abv is 4.5 to 5.5%. I messed up taking the OG but my FG was 1.0093. The beer is really good but to myself and 4 other seasoned beer drinkers we all feel its affects and agree 5.5% seems low.

What could I have done to make the abv higher than expected? Too little top off? The 5 gallon brew only yielded 44 bottles and was a pretty clean rack.

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[TxBigHops]

Do you know if you were close to 5 gallons in the carboy or fermentation bucket? 44 bottles is 4.125 gallons, so with losses for trub and yeast, that's pretty close to a full batch. With a kit, you would have to miss your volume by quite a bit more that that to have a significant impact on ABV. Sounds like you made a good beer. Enjoy!

 

[prandlesc]

The 5 gallon brew only yielded 44 bottles and was a pretty clean rack.

Your low number of bottles makes it sound like you made a batch that was just over 4 gallons, not 5 like you were expecting. That could push your ABV up to about 7%.

I did a quick test of that theory with some brewing software to calculate the potential change in ABV. Brewing software would let you enter the actual ingredients you used, and then play with the volumes to see the effect of lower actual volume (compared to planned) has on ABV.

My guess is that your volume into the fermenter was lower than you (and the recipe) expected.

Best of luck!

 

[Steve3730]

I thought my volume was right on 5 gallon but I may have mistaken. I boiled around 3 gallons and topped of too 5. I guess recording that OG will be done better on the next batch!

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[morticaixavier]

I thought my volume was right on 5 gallon but I may have mistaken. I boiled around 3 gallons and topped of too 5. I guess recording that OG will be done better on the next batch!

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if it's an extract kit you can look at the instructions. whatever they said the OG should be is what it was assuming you hit your volumes correctly.

if All Grain or partial mash all bets are off.

 

[duboman]

If you did not verify the gallon markings on your bucket then you might think you hit 5 gallons when in fact you didn't. Don't ever assume the factory printing is correct If you only got 44 bottles then you were closer to 4 gallons than 5 and yes, that will bump up your OG and affect your ABV based on FG attained.

If in fact you did get 5 gallons then your readings oare wrong. As stated, when brewing partial boil extract kits your OG will always be what the recipe states as long as you hit the proper volume in the primary before pitching yeast.

 

[Steve3730]

Extract kit. My FG was right where the kit said is should be kit 1.010 me 1.0093

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[morticaixavier]

Extract kit. My FG was right where the kit said is should be kit 1.010 me 1.0093

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you may also simply be experiencing the joy of getting tipsy on your very own homebrew. also, if you started your ferment pretty warm (in the low to mid 70's) you probably got some higher fusel alcohol production which can have a different effect. not all alcohol is created equal.

 

[Steve3730]

you may also simply be experiencing the joy of getting tipsy on your very own homebrew. also, if you started your ferment pretty warm (in the low to mid 70's) you probably got some higher fusel alcohol production which can have a different effect. not all alcohol is created equal.

i did run hot the first like 4 days around 70-72 before relocating it to a 65 degree room