Gravity issues with fruit beer

[Jaurez]

Hi all, any help would be appreciated on this one. I ordered a fruit beer kit online for the first time and, after brewing with the grain, the OG has come out a lot lower than I expected - as 1.027.
However, the kit only came with half the grain I usually get with kits like this and a tub of fruit concentrate (which I haven't added to the fermenter yet).
The kit said to expect the fruit addition to bump up the ABV by 1-1.5%, so if that works the FG is about 1.010 I'm looking at 3.2-3.7%, which is lower than desired. I'd ideally like around 4.5%.

I've ordered a 1.5kg tub of Light Pilsen LME which should arrive on the 7th (5 days into fermentation). So I'm planning to add a bit of that into the fermenter then wait another 5 days before adding the fruit.
What do you think of this idea? And how can I calculate how much LME to add to reach my desired ABV?

Full kit ingredient:

• 2 kg Pilsen Malt grains
• 1.3kg Pale Wheat grains
• 0.9kg Strawberry concentrate
• 30g Pacific Crest hops
• US-05 dried yeast

 

[AlexKay]

You’ll probably end up a bit lower than 1.010, so you could hit 4% once the fruit goes in. But I wouldn’t stress out too much over ABV. You’re not going to be able to taste a difference between 3.5% and 4.5%, in my opinion.

If you must add the malt extract, I’d probably throw it in at the same time as the fruit. Yeah, there’s some thinking that if you give the yeast a lot of simple sugars they won’t get around to consuming maltose. But I doubt it’s going to make a difference in the final beer.

 

[hotbeer]

There's no shame in having less than 6% ABV. Your lower alcohol beer might have more fruit and other flavors coming through.

Seems that we've gotten into some kind of weird fad or competition to mash and boil to a obscenely high OG.

I wouldn't add anything to the fermenter to try and increase it's sugar. Just see what it becomes after bottled or kegged. And if it's a good tasting beer, you'll be able to drink more before you get too silly.

 

[Stormcrow]

I've never tried that, but it sounds like it should work if you want to try. As far as figuring amounts goes, if you don't already have recipe software, download one of the free apps and enter your ingredients. You can play around with the amount of DME on there until you get the numbers you're looking for.

 

[Jaurez]

I didn't add the LME in the end and just added the fruit concentrate last night. Which turned out to be a fortunate decision because this morning the krausen was really thick and has pushed up to my fermenter bucket's lid overnight. If I'd added any more volume I'd probably have ended up with a blow-off.

 

[hottpeper13]

That is a sweet looking fermenter.

 

[hotbeer]

It's just sitting there in the bright light for the picture isn't it?

 

[Jaurez]

It's just sitting there in the bright light for the picture isn't it?

It's actually been in that spot the whole time. I thought it was only direct sunlight that caused issues, but I've moved it to a dark place now. Thanks for prompting me to look that up.