First brew from Red Ale kit. SG a little off...

[Ckarsanac]

Made (attempted) first brew with a couple of buddies last night. Used a Red Ale kit ( i forget the name of the brand). Had a little trouble keeping it boiling for 60mins, but o/w did ok.

I checked SG and it was 1.042 when I was about to add yeast. The kit says it should be 1.048-1.05 2 questions:

1. Is this do to the poor boil?
2. I know this will decrease the EtOH level, but is there anything else that i need to worry about?

It was bubbling this morning, if that adds anything...

Thanks!

 

[Kaz]

Extract recipe with top off water added? If so, that is the problem, unless you mix the living daylights out of it, the water sits on top of the wort and gives you a false low reading. As long as you hit your target volume and added all the fermentables you should be on track. The fermentation will mix it up just fine.

 

[pablo1337]

+1 to Kaz's response

Even if you didn't top off with water, it will still be beer. The boil is likely not what caused the discrepancy in gravity. If anything caused it (if it truly is at 1.042) is if you had more wort than specified for in the recipe. The poor boil could cause the beer to be less bitter, but it will still be wonderful. It is really hard to really f up brewing.

just relax and have a beer