Coopers Stout OG waaaay off

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Bettybeers

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Hi folks, just put on a Coopers stout, it's my second ever brew (first one is a Mangrove Jack's Golden Ale, still in bottles conditioning). The instructions say OG should be 1038 using recommended brewing ingredients, and I've read lots of posts saying ignore them, but my OG is 1080! I added 500g dark malt extract, around 150g black treacle and 1kg of brew enhancer 2. Have I made fuel?
 
1.038 would only make a beer of about 4%. Does it suggest a final gravity? 1.008 is quite a common finishing SG. What ABV does the kit say? You have added rather a lot of "sugars" !!!! Could go to 10% !
 
I checked the hydrometer last week and it was ok, I'll check again in a moment. No sign of a suggested final gravity on the packet. I pitched the yeast at around 23 degrees. I really hope I can keep this under 10%. I was hoping for around 5% - 6%. May have gotten a bit carried away 😬
 
When you use beer enhancer or spray malt it's meant to replace the sugar, not add to it! You can't stop fermentation early as it would be sickly sweet. So serve it in small glasses!!!
 
Sounds like the hydrometer reading was about right the. How much sugar did the kit instructions say to add?
You could always boil and cool some water and add it to the wort to bring the O.G. down
 
No way is your original gravity is 1.083. 1.053 is plausible for an ABV of circa 5.6%.
 
The packet said to add 1kg brew enhancer 3, which I thought was 500g DME, 250g dextrose and 250g maltodextrin. So I put in an additional 500g malt and some treacle to boot. I'm sure I've read forums where others have done similar recipes, but now I'm doubting myself...
 
I hope you're right Slid. It does seem way too high for a basic kit and kilo, but then what do I know? I've been doing this for three weeks 😂
 
I always suggest you don't pimp a kit until you have brewed it once. The makers will have fine-tuned it to get good results. I use dextrose instead of granulated sugar in my one-can kits but that's the only "upgrade" I do.
 
With kits you add a weight of dissolvable sugars to make up a known volume of wort and the resulting SG can be a calculated.
So according to this....
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator...your OG should be around 1.050. It is impossible to be much different. If I followed your recipe exactly we should have the same OG.
If you have not mixed the sugars properly and its more concentrated at the bottom, and you sample from the top the SG will be lower than what it should be i.e. the average. But if you bottom sample say through a tap it is possible that the SG will be higher than what it should be.
So if the wort is properly mixed you are either reading the hydrometer incorrectly or your hydrometer is significantly out. To discount the later dunk it in clean water at about 1.000 it should read 1.000.
And if your Coopers kit is made up to 23 litres with 500g each of dextrose and spray malt the calculated OG is 1.037
 
I took my reading from a sample through the tap, so bottom sample. I had some serious clumping to start with and thought I had got it dissolved but I think probably not so much following your suggestion
 
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