Why is my beer piss weak?

[Matt12398]

I've brewed my first two kits in past 3 weeks starting with a Wherry because I've heard people say it's good and was very straight forward and for my second did a Cooper's Irish Stout a week later giving me a chance to try one with a few more steps using the extra fermentables.

The Wherry fermented really nicely slowing right down after about 8-9 days and 2 weeks on is sat at 1.014. This seemed a bit high to me but the instructions seem to think it's good to go once it gets that low so will be bottling tomorrow. I decided not to go for the full 23 litres and just top up to about 21 to try and raise the ABV very slightly but it still only came out about 1.040. It might be because it was slightly warm when I measured it but I would have thought the difference would be negligible. I can't imagine what it would have been at the full 23 litres. I worked out that based on those values the ABV should be around 3.6% which to me seems really low. I heard that priming sugar can raise the ABV by about 0.5% which would be a reasonable 4.1%. How much would you expect it to change with the priming sugar?

The Coopers Irish Stout was prepared roughly to the instructions with 500 g light DME and 300 g brewing sugar. The only direction that wasn't followed was the final volume where I again only went to about 21 litres. This one was only about 1.038 but has gotten down to 1.010 in just 6 days. The only reason it was checked this early on was because I wasn't sure it was actually fermenting. If it stays there this one works out at a similar ABV.

I'm not brewing to make strong beers but thought these kits would come out somewhere in the normal range for what you would expect for ales. Anyone know if there's something I'm doing wrong?

[winka]

I know my John Bull IPA was very low and I was dissapointed when i took a Starting gravity, becauyse when it was due to finish was simmilar and only gave me about 3.5 ish.

I did to 23l and used beerkit enhancer so dunno if that had anything to do with it.

Just done a Scottish export and brewed with 2 jars Malt extract, and 1 bottle of golden syrup and judging from the starting gravity and what it says the instructions finishing gravity it should be about 5.5% so then threw in 4 heaped dessert spoons of sugar to kick it up the arse a bit aswell

Only my second beer the Scottish so Im still learning, but next time i brew a JB IPA im going to use the jars of malt extract and golden syrup again to see what happens.

Cheers

[BeerEagle]

3kg of Liquid Malt Extract in 21litres should give you an OG of about 1.040 which, depending on the yeast, should give you a FG of about 1.010 - ABV about 4.0%

This assumes standard LME, maybe the Wherry kit has less water in it ie. more fermentable sugar per kilo.

For every 100g of sugar (priming) you could expect an increase in ABV of 0.15%

[Pinto]

FG and ABV isnt everything - if you're using SME especially - fine beers sometimes come at lower strength. Its just as important IMO to have a thick, rich body and superb taste as alcoholic kick (hence I love belgian ales as they represent the best of all worlds IMO).

Before you decide your brew is a failure, give it a few weeks conditioning and then sup a few - a lower ABV means you can sup a few more before falling over

[john_drummer]

3.5 - 4% ABV isn't what I'd call "piss weak", it's a typical "session beer" strength i.e. you can have a whole session drinking it & still walk home.
a high ABV isn't the be all & end all for me; if you want a stronger brew, start with a stronger recipe e.g. Woodfordes Headcracker if it's still available.
Or go AG/BIAB & brew to your favourite commercial recipe at whatever strength you like.

[mickhew]

You can add more fementables to raise the OG, try experimenting with that maybe? About 4% sounds right to me, you're not doing anything wrong, the manufacturers claims are a bit optimistic.

[mickhew]

instructions with 500 g light DME and 300 g brewing sugar.

I always add a KG of fermentables, I thought that's what the instructions said, I must be wrong.

[Matt12398]

Thanks guys. I didn't want strong, I just wanted something 4.0-4.5% like you would generally expect from your favourite shop bought ales. I'm brewing for fun and because I love the taste of beer so as long as it tastes nice it's fine but I just expected a little more.

Mickhew, I followed the instructions and that's what it suggested but I know some that people seem to go higher on the fermentables. With a one can kit that would make sense to me as well but I thought as it's only my second attempt I'd stick with what it says.

http://www.coopers.com.au/the-brewers-g ... rish-stout

John_Drummer, AG is where I'd like to end up soon definitely. I'm going to see how these kit brews work out once conditioned and all being well want to try some extract recipes without having to buy any extra kit at the moment. Hopefully the logical progression after that will be AG.

Thanks again guys. You've been really helpful.

[EliteEvil]

IIRC real wherry is 3.8%.

[Kev888]

Being warm when you measure the gravity with a hydrometer can make a definate difference, so that will be part of the answer but it depends how warm it was as to how big a part it played. Also, its worth checking your volume - some of the scales printed on fermenting buckets are incredibly sloppy for instance, and could easily be out by a few litres or so. And ditto for thermometers and hydrometers - they can all be out a bit (or occasionally a lot). In fact even the gravity-to-abv calculation is only an estimate and the exact conversion isn't entirely agreed upon.

So within all that scope for differences, your results seem pretty reasonable to me; rather than absolute numbers I'd be more concerned if it didn't taste right or if each wherry you made wasn't similar to the others. With a two-can kit you normally get what you get really - assuming you get the volumes and the fermentation temperatures right (and obviously sanitation). So other than the above, just make sure the fermentation temperatures are reasonable and your yeast is in date and that sort of thing. The manufacturers can sometimes seem a tad optimistic, probably quoting the perfect/best case, but in practice an FG of 1.014 sounds fairly normal for a wherry, as does your ABV.

With the two-can kits you mentioned there is additional scope for changes through the fermentables you add, so its not surprising that they came out differently to the wherry. For instance, sugar ferments more fully than malt extract, so gives a lower FG (but less body) - that will partly explain your lower FG with the two-can kit. Also malts can ferment differently depending on how they're made - general purpose spraymalt is likely to be middle-ground, whilst the wherry's malt 'could' have been created in a way that ferments less readily/fully - I don't know if it actually is, but in AG brewing (where we extract the malt ourselves) its a way we can allow a session beer with a modest OG to still end up with a high-ish FG and so have a good amount of body. The kits may use a different yeast too - some yeast varieties ferment out more than others, so again the wherry could have gone with one that leaves more body (and higher FG) than your one-can kit manufacturers did.

EDIT: sorry - that all got a bit long-winded, hope it makes sense!

Cheers
Kev

[darrellm]

If you want something a bit stronger, try the Muntons Premium Gold kits: both my Smugglers and Midas Touch kits started out at 1046 and got right down to 1010, and both in 11 days. The Midas produced so much foam it nearly took the top odd the bucket And both ended up quality beers

I've done quite a few other kits but these have turned out the strongest.

[Monkeybrew]

IIRC real wherry is 3.8%.

Correct, I had a couple last night