Stout Mistake

[John Spiegel]

Made a whiskey stout from a Brewer's Best extract kit. Followed the instructions to the letter, and our SG was 1.040 instead of the 1.065 the kit projected. My buddy and I have no idea why. Our fermenter was even under the 5 gallon mark by about 1/4 gallon, so we didn't overfill or anything. FG was 1.020, which is as projected. Just a low ABV.

Along those lines, it's been in the keg aging with the whiskey barrel oak chips for about 1 1/5-2 weeks now, and it feels slightly thin - almost like a lager in the mouth feel. Is this related to the low alcohol content?

 

[RM-MN]

Made a whiskey stout from a Brewer's Best extract kit. Followed the instructions to the letter, and our SG was 1.040 instead of the 1.065 the kit projected. My buddy and I have nod idea why. Our fermenter was even under the 5 gallon mark by about 1/4 gallon, so we didn't overfill or anything. FG was 1.020, which is as projected. Just a low ABV.

Along those lines, it's been in the keg aging with the whiskey barrel oak chips for about 1 1/5-2 weeks now, and it feels slightly thin - almost like a lager in the mouth feel. Is this related to the low alcohol content?

With an extract kit you can't mill the OG unless you used the wrong amount of water. The kits have you do a partial boil and top off with water which is darned hard to mix well with the more concentrated wort. That means you simply got a bad OG reading.

The thin mouthfeel is because your stout simply needs more time. Mine usually sit in bottles for 4 to 6 month before I start drinking because of that. My first experience was with a robust porter kit which was so watery I was really disappointed....until about 3 months in the bottle when it "suddenly" became robust.

 

[ncbrewer]

With an extract kit you can't mill the OG unless you used the wrong amount of water. The kits have you do a partial boil and top off with water which is darned hard to mix well with the more concentrated wort. That means you simply got a bad OG reading.

+1 (except for the typo). Just use the kit OG for this batch.

 

[Kickass]

Did you do a full boil or partial boil to which you then topped of with water?

If you topped off, you likely didn’t mix the water and wort well. There’s a pretty strong stratification that happens between wort and water the prevents it from mixing well. I’d guess your OG is within a point or two of the kit. It’s hard to miss by that much if you added all the extract and hit your volume.

Lastly, the mouthfeel. Perception often creates a bias. I’d guess if you asked multiple people to rare the mouthfeel without telling them what’s going on, there won’t be an overwhelming impression of thin body.

 

[John Spiegel]

I hadn't thought about stratification between the wort and extra water. That could definitely be it - we've done extracts like this tons of times and never had an issue.

I'll let it age a bit for the mouthfeel. Those I asked to test it I did preface by saying it felt thin. My fault for nudging them that way, probably.
Thanks all.

 

[John Spiegel]

Checking in after a few weeks: Still can't know for sure what the SG was, but carbonation and waiting helped the mouth feel a lot. Feels much more full bodied now. Had a few others try it out and they seemed to agree.

 

[RM-MN]

Checking in after a few weeks: Still can't know for sure what the SG was, but carbonation and waiting helped the mouth feel a lot. Feels much more full bodied now. Had a few others try it out and they seemed to agree.

Try to save a little of this batch for 6 months or more and report then on how it has changed. I usually don't start drinking my stouts until at least 3 months have passed as I know it will improve the beer.