low ABV

[ElKabong]

I just bottled my very first batch of Coopers IPA, just prior to bottling i took a final spec. gravity reading of 1.016 @ 68 deg converted to 1.017 Initial Sp. Gr reading was 1.043 calculated % Alcohol is 3.4% Question on my next batch of extract brewing how can I increase the final alcohol content.
BTW the hardest part of all this was the wait

 

[duboman]

How long was it in the primary and do you take readings for a couple few days to be sure it was done fermenting? It seems to me you could have gotten a few more Points out of it.

 

[chickypad]

That OG sounds pretty low for an IPA. I think those kits call for extra sugar to be added, are you sure you added everything? If so does the kit say what the OG is supposed to be? You may have gotten an artificially low reading from trying to mix in top off water - lots of threads on this.

 

[Camride]

What was the OG supposed to be? The kit should have a range. If you were outside of the range you likely either didn't stir the wort up well after bringing it up to full batch size and got a sample with more water than wort, or you didn't add all the ingredients. Extract kits are pretty easy to hit the OG with since you're not having to deal with mash efficiencies or anything, you're just dumping in extracted malt/sugar. I've only done three extract kits so far, but they've all hit the upper range of the stated OG.

 

[aidan]

I just bottled my very first batch of Coopers IPA, just prior to bottling i took a final spec. gravity reading of 1.016 @ 68 deg converted to 1.017 Initial Sp. Gr reading was 1.043 calculated % Alcohol is 3.4% Question on my next batch of extract brewing how can I increase the final alcohol content.
BTW the hardest part of all this was the wait

2 options: a) add more malt - liquid malt extract or dry malt extract
b) add less water (bitterness will be increased as the hops will be more concentrated but that can be a good thing)

Try out a beer recipe calculator so that you can work out the expected avb. If you just want an idea of abv you can use any recipe calc and substitute LME for the Coopers kit. If you want to get an idea of expected bitterness a calculator that includes the bitterness stats for the popular kits is handy. For that I use one called Kit & Extract Beer Designer which you can find a link to on the resources page of my blog.

 

[david_42]

Was the kit the can + 500 gm of dry malt or just a can with you adding table sugar?

 

[Alemann]

Add more corn sugar or dme

 

[drhookmec]

How long was it in the primary and do you take readings for a couple few days to be sure it was done fermenting? It seems to me you could have gotten a few more Points out of it.

I agree,

I just bottled my very first batch of Coopers IPA, just prior to bottling i took a final spec. gravity reading of 1.016 @ 68 deg converted to 1.017 Initial Sp. Gr reading was 1.043 calculated % Alcohol is 3.4% Question on my next batch of extract brewing how can I increase the final alcohol content.
BTW the hardest part of all this was the wait

You probably just had a stuck fermentation.
And in cases like this all you need to do is gently swirl the fermentor to rouse the yeast and get them going again
and maybe moving the fermentor to a warmer place helps too.
Doing this could have easily got you another 6points or so on gravity.

Since you've allready bottled I would keep a eye out for bottle bombs.