Making a 9 liter Brewferm kit into 5 gallons?

[mrorange38]

Hello all! New to the forum, and had a question...

My local beer shop was "clearing out" some of these brewferm kits. For some reason they didn't tell me they were actually small batch kits, but just said they were out of date Well , turns out the can is the same size as you'd find in most 5 gallon kits, but the kit is only for about 2.2 gallons (9 liters). Sneaky... So, see I assumed all along the kit was for 5 gallons until I finally tasted it after racking/carbing.

Long story short, I wound up making one of these with an additional pound of dextrose but with a little over 5 gallons of water. I think I might have a "light" version :cross: Color and clarity is the most classic of any beer I've made. However, the beer tastes very light. Also, I was not able to get much of any read on my hydro when testing about 2 weeks ago in the primary.

Overally, the beer is drinkable and tastes ok. Can I be sure there is at least some alcohol in this beer? Would the 1 pound of dextrose I added have given me some extra volume for water? I boiled for about 30-45 minutes. That's also something I'd like some clarification on as I've been reading conflicting information on boiling the wort with these beer kits.

Thanks for any help! I'm just a very amateur brewers and I have relied on my local brew shop for most advice. I brew with a bucket, and keg with corny kegs which is why I always do about 5 gallon batches.

 

[ACbrewer]

What exactly went in. You certianly got some alcohol, but taking hydro readings is needed to know for sure, although knowing what went in can give you an idea.

If you do single vessel, (ie no secondary) you can brew 3 gallons or 2.2 gallons in 5 gallon containers. A typical beer ferment will generate 120 gallons of CO2 at standard temp and preasure (aka 1 atm 70F)... so easily suck up the O2 and displace it while making CO2 (heck even if I'm off by an order of magnatude, there will still be enough to put CO2 in the vessel). If you rack to a secondary, then the co2 blanket is lost and you might oxygenating your beer - which is bad.

But back you your question, yeah you have some alcohol.

As to boiling or not boiling your kit, that is somewhat undecided. It sounds like you have a no boil kit. Which doesn't need boiling, only warming to help get it out of a can. However some say that the flavor is improved by boiling. really up to you, but if the kit doesn't call for it, you can save yourself that time, or you can boil, do both and compare results!