Very Low ABV

[stevelufc]

After making my first batch of wine i decided to my first lager kit and went the Coopers European lager

put "everything" into my 26l FV, put the lid on, bung and airlock in and stood back to admire my handywork..

Doh !..... i'd forgotton to add the suger

took the lid back off, added 1kg of brewers sugar and stirred

the kit instructions said give it a week but read on here to give it two so i did.

its now 14 days later so i though i would test the FG and its 1010, OG was 1021 so that gives 1.5%abv

did i maybe read the FG wrong, did that fact i put the sugar in last bugger things up, is there anything i can do to redeem things

any advice gratefully received, as you can tell i'm a real novice

Steve

 

[kev]

Could be :

1. Not mixed properly

Or

2: you misread the hydrometer.

K

 

[Mark1964]

There is not much you can do except buy another packet of yeast. The sugar should have been dissolved really in boiled water before adding. Whatever sugar the kit says to add at the beginning you could do again but dissolve first then add to beer then use the new packet of yeast. Its worth a try

 

[stevelufc]

cheers Kev & Mark..

If I dissolve 1kg of brewers yeast in 2lts of hot water, add it to my FV along with another packet of yeast

this may recover it ?

How long should I leave this, another week maybe /

thanks

 

[RobWalker]

Nothing's wrong with it pal. The fermentables are in there and the yeast will find them, so provided you added the kit and the sugar as directed, you're okay. You might wanna sanitize a long spoon, give it a good stir, put the lid back on and see if anything else happens, but don't add any more fermentables or you'll be looking at barley wine

I once made the same mistake and chucked in about another 500g sugar after recording 1.025 as an OG. In reality, it was fine! That's one of the main advantages of extract brewing, no worries about OG etc.

I would suggest giving it near a week just in case it's still trundling along with the fermentables at the bottom. But don't panic at all, you basically had an accident free brew.

 

[kev]

As Rob said, it's not a low abv so don't do anything. It will turn out at the right strength.

You just had a dodgy og reading. If you muck about with it you might screw up an ok brew.

K

 

[stevelufc]

cheers for the advice lads :thumb:

gonna do as Rob suggested, sanitise my long spoon, good stir and leave another week

that will mean it will have had 21 days in the same FV, i assume thats OK ?

 

[RobWalker]

Yeah, beer is pretty resilient as long as you don't have a lot of headroom. I would personally add maybe 50-100g sugar when stirring. That way it will kick the fermentation up and recreate the protective co2 layer. Badda bong badda boom, protected beer.

 

[stevelufc]

cheers Rob,

added some sugar 50g, and given a good stir,

I'll bottle in a weeks time