First brew a few teething problems.

[terrym]

Thanks terrym - I'll bookmark the link. On the instruction sheet I noted the OG as 1.042 and the FG was 1.020 which gives me a 2.88% beer which could be why I don't particularity like it! Like my beer a lot stronger but as it came with the equipment, no point in wasting it eh :)

If you measured the SG correctly and it turned out that the FG was indeed 1.020 there is every likelihood that your fermentation 'stuck' i.e the yeast gave up before it should for whatever reason. Your beer may have turned out quite sweet as a result. Anyway the data sheet for your Block Amber Ale kit says its a Muntons Ale Yeast that is supplied, which is likely to be a GV12 yeast which is normally reliable and would give an FG of 1.010 or just below, which would correspond to an ABV around the 4.3% mark.
Although there's nothing you can do now to this beer, for future reference there are a few things you can do to restart a stuck fermentation as noted in here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...s-for-dealing-with-stuck-fermentations.74910/

 

[matt76]

If you measured the SG correctly and it turned out that the FG was indeed 1.020 there is every likelihood that your fermentation 'stuck' i.e the yeast gave up before it should for whatever reason. Your beer may have turned out quite sweet as a result. Anyway the data sheet for your Block Amber Ale kit says its a Muntons Ale Yeast that is supplied, which is likely to be a GV12 yeast which is normally reliable and would give an FG of 1.010 or just below, which would correspond to an ABV around the 4.3% mark.
Although there's nothing you can do now to this beer, for future reference there are a few things you can do to restart a stuck fermentation as noted in here
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...s-for-dealing-with-stuck-fermentations.74910/

FWIW, when i did this kit my FG was 1.018, and yes it was rather sweet. The supplied Muntons yeast was out of date so i replaced it with Muntons gold/premium yeast- even so it seems it didn't make much difference.