Low Gravity Beer - How do I Kick it up?

[jbauer1]

I have a red in primary, I just to a gravity reading. It is at 1.010. It started at 1.040. If I'm not mistaken, that means there is very little alcohol in my beer (this is my second batch). Is there a way for me to kick up the alcohol? Maybe rack it to secondary on top of some additional DME cooled to fermentation temp? Please help, I want this thing to pack a punch.

Thanks,

JB

 

[sptaylor70]

I'm not certain that 3.9% ABV qualifies as "very little alcohol." You're in the range of an English ordinary bitter, best bitter, or brown ale; or a Scottish 70/- or 80/-. All are session beers, and quite satisfying. I would just drink what I have and use the slurry from this red to ferment a bigger version (OG ~ 1060) of the same recipe.

If you are, however, dead set on increasing the ABV, then I think that you should 1) transfer what you have to a secondary, 2) brew a bigger version of the same beer (OG ~ 1080) and 3) use the yeast slurry from the first red to ferment the second, then 4) combine the two resulting beers when finished.

 

[Hello]

I second the opinion to drink it as is or combine it with another bigger beer. I leave it though. 3.9% means you'll have a nice easy drinking beer that won't floor you after a couple. I drink for taste though not ABV.

 

[FatDragon]

Let this beer finish, then package it and drink it when it's ready. If you want something heftier next time, learn more about recipe formulation (or follow an existing recipe) before your next brew.

If your 1.040 OG is less than you were expecting from your original recipe, either learn how to improve your efficiency if you're brewing from grain, or relax if you're brewing from extract - you have to really screw something up to get much less than the calculated OG from an extract brew, but it's really easy to misread the OG of extract wort)

It's fun to make beers that'll knock you on your ass, but it's also nice to have and appreciate a beer that won't.