Help Low ABV! Who likes watery beer?!

[LazyBrewing]

It's my first beer. I hoped to create a NOLA Brown Ale. I've read till my eyes burn. If it's already been answered point me to the link.

I'm sipping on my first brew, pretty cool in itself. However it's only at a abv of 2.1%. I brewed a True Brew K14 Brown Ale. I did not add the Maltodextin as I wanted a low body smooth ale. Here's what I did do:

Used Star Sans for everything.

Added warm liquid malt to 2.5 gallons of boiling water, brought back to a boil, added aroma hops and boiled for 45 min. Then I chilled the wort to 75 degrees, transferred it to a carboy & topped it off to the 5 gal mark. At 60 degrees I took the SG (1.031) activated the yeast in warm water and added it to the wort. Finally I added an airlock and let it sit for 3 weeks. The bubbling had stopped, the temp was 63 degrees and S.G was 1.015. I added 3.9oz of priming sugar dissolved in a pint of water. Thanks to Homebrew I didn't add all of it, but used a calculator! Then I bottled. 2 weeks later I'm sipping.

Now to the drinking of this brew. It taste a touch watery and has a heck of a head. Crack the top and foam pours out. Very sad.

I'm thinking of only adding 3.5 oz of priming sugar next time. But as to the low ABV. I expected this to be around 4%. The water I used was purified, the temp for fermenting was 65-68 degrees. What did I do wrong?

Waiting for the wisdom....ipe:

 

[photobru]

What was the recipe? 1.031 is a very low OG.

EDIT: This kit?

 

[Natdavis777]

What did you expect your OG to be? If you plan on diluting to get to the 5 gal mark, then you need to make a stronger beer. It seems like there might have been a miscalculation somewhere. If you are brewing a 2.5 gal beer, and plan to dilute it to 5 gal and expect something in the ballpark of 4% or better, you will need an OG over 1.100SG (per my calc). Brewers Friend has a dilution calculator you can use to help you dial in your process.

It looks like your 2.5 gal beer only topped out around 1.075, and given that you dilluted that with 3 gal of water @ 1.000, you ended up with 1.031

 

[photobru]

The malto shouldn't have made a difference, but did you forget to add the 2 lbs of Muntons Dark Dry Malt Extract?

 

[Calder]

What was the recipe?

You measured 1.031 as the OG. It takes a lot of work to fully mix the boiled wort with added water. Do some research, and you will find hundreds of threads where people have measured low OGs. Your OG may have easily been higher than you measured

With extract batches, you can bet you get what the recipe says you will get. It is very easy to calculate. It looks like you omitted one ingredient (maltodextrin), so your OG would be less than the recipe. 1 lb of maltodextrin in 5 gallons accounts for ,007 points.

Post what you actually brewed, and someone will tell you what your OG was.

I found a lot of my early brews tasted 'watery', thin, or just missing some body. I'm not sure what fixed it, but my beers now have every bit as much body as commercials.

 

[LazyBrewing]

What was the recipe? 1.031 is a very low OG.

EDIT: This kit?

Yes, that is the one. I did add the Muntons Dark Dry Malt Extract. It was added at the same time as the liquid extract.

 

[LazyBrewing]

My original O.G. was suppose to be 1.043-1.045. Could it be I didn't fully mix it or that I added too much water? From my notes it seems I may have gently stirred it. Should I have vigorously stirred? Brewersfriend site must be having issues I'm not getting it to pull up, but I'll keep trying. I'm all for programs that do my math for me!:rockin:

 

[flars]

My original O.G. was suppose to be 1.043-1.045. Could it be I didn't fully mix it or that I added too much water? From my notes it seems I may have gently stirred it. Should I have vigorously stirred? Brewersfriend site must be having issues I'm not getting it to pull up, but I'll keep trying. I'm all for programs that do my math for me!:rockin:

Maltodextrin is for body, no flavor or contribution to the fermentables. This would have made your beer seem less watery.

If you had added all of the fermentables and had five gallons in the fermentor, the recipe estimated OG would be what you will have in the fermentor.

When doing a partial boil and adding top off water, even with vigorous aeration, the heavier extract, and the lighter top off water may not get thoroughly mixed. The SG sample may come from part of the wort heavier or lighter to sugars, resulting in an incorrect OG reading. (I don't take an OG reading anymore with extract partial boils for this reason.)

There is room for OG error, resulting in a true OG being either higher or lower than the recipe OG, other than a poor mix, if your fermentor is not accurately marked for the five gallon level. Factory markings, especially with buckets, are not correct. I haven't used any carboys with gallon markings to know if these are correct or not.

I filled one of my carboys with an exactly measured five gallons of water, and then marked the level on both sides of the carboy with Gorilla tape. Exact meaning within about 6 ounces. I siphoned this five gallons to each of my fermentors to have each marked for five gallons. Even if carboys look the same, volumes can be different due to differences in the molds used.

Bottle conditioning time can also affect the taste and mouth feel of beer. I will give my lower gravity beers at least three weeks of conditioning at about 68° to 70°F. chill for a few days then taste. Higher gravity beers two to four weeks more conditioning time.

I hope some of this is useful for solving the problem with your beer.

 

[LazyBrewing]

Awesome! Thank you for all your help. I'll be starting a new batch soon, it should be an improvement!