Second Batch low OG

[konaniko]

Just started my second batch. 1st batch (coopers brown ale kit) turned out OK. It was fermented to high a temp so flavors are off. Now I have a new problem. Just started a Coopers wheat and took hydrometer reading and it was 1.032 after temp conversion. I made the mistake of not getting DME to add so it was just the kit and 9 oz of dextrose. My question, Is this beer even worth carrying to secondary? Looking at the calculations if I can get it to 1.006 (feel like that is unlikely) it will be 3.4% ABV which seems a little low. I am not overly concerned about % alcohol but how is it going to taste? I guess you live and learn but I feel like it takes a long time to find out you screwed up.

 

[marubozo]

How much DME were you supposed to add? The malt is what gives the beer most of its flavor, so if you had little more than dextrose in there it's going to be far from what you'd consider beer. :cross:

 

[ToddO]

Dont bother with secondary. Seriously. Rack and bottle/keg it quick - as low as your beer gravity wise it wont really matter. You still have beer. If you think it is done fermenting bottle it up. 10 days or so at that gravity is gold IMO.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

IF you followed the kit directions the OG will be what the kit says. The issue is PROBABLY That you added top up water that did not mix well with the wort and that threw off your OG... I made a beer eecently that was intentionally that low of an OG and it was pretty good ( just had one actually) It really let the hoppiness come out.

 

[Burro2882]

IF you followed the kit directions the OG will be what the kit says. The issue is PROBABLY That you added top up water that did not mix well with the wort and that threw off your OG... I made a beer eecently that was intentionally that low of an OG and it was pretty good ( just had one actually) It really let the hoppiness come out.

+1. This is very likely to be your problem if you added water to the fermenter and took a reading without stirring WELL. I made this same mistake before, but the good news is, its not really a problem because its just the reading that is off. The beer should still turn out exactly how its supposed to assuming you followed the directions.

 

[BeerJorge]

What exactly do you mean by Temp conversion?

 

[konaniko]

I measured it at 80deg and hydrometers are meant to measure at 60deg so there is a conversion that is used. It went from a 1.030 to a 1.032.

500 g of DME but was not used.

I'm pretty sure I know where I messed up. I boiled 2 gallons of water and put in fermenter and tried to cool. Then I boiled 2 1/2 gallons of water with the kit and sugar and then added 1/2 gallon of tap water. I then stirred for 5 min, but had to wait 5 hrs for the wort to cool enough to pitch the yeast. Does this sound like a reason I would have such a low OG?

 

[a10t2]

Yup, you just can't stir together wort and water uniformly, at least in any reasonable amount of time. If you know how much extract was used, and the volume, you might as well just calculate the OG. There isn't really any reason to take a hydrometer reading.