OG's

[mancer62]

I done two extract brews last night.
A john bull ipa & a.wilko ipa.
I brewed both to 37 pints.
I also made both with 750g LME & 500g white granulated sugar.
I was bit disappointed with my OG's which I feel are bit low.. the john bull was 1042 and the wilko 1040. Reducing to 21 L should I have expected higher?
With the john bull I have used an American pale ale yeast 10g
And with the wilko I used both the 6g sachets that came with both kits (is this ok?)
What sort of final ANV do u think I can expect from both?
Any comments welcomed

 

[Leon103]

Did you remove it a good stir and let it all dissolve before taking a reading. I would have expected more. How old are the kits? What temp did you take a reading at?

 

[Drunkula]

Beersmith says 1041 for the Wilko kit - presuming 1.5kg and 1046 for 1.8kg. I enter kits as amber liquid extract which isn't perfect.

I recently did a 1.8kg John Bull kit with a kilo of dry malt extract and 300g of sugar and Beersmith predicted 1044 for that but I measured 1042, and that's even with my dry extract adjusted down because Beersmith puts all dry stuff as 1.044 points per pound, and Munton's stuff is lower. The extra dark is 1037.

 

[mancer62]

The temo was in range of 18 - 25 C
I stirred it for ages....

 

[The Baron]

Abv on those figures should be 4 to 4.4 depending on where they finish

 

[mancer62]

As long as least 4% ill be happy

 

[terrym]

As I suggested to you before, you should be honing your skills on the calculator.
Beer Recipe Calculator - Brewer's Friend
It is good for kit and extract brewing with few grain additions since it does not have to take into account mashing efficiencies. I use it and find it gives good agreement with measured and predicted OGs
In your case the calculator predicts 1.045 (JB) and 1.040 (Wilko). So the Wilko is spot on. I have no idea why your measured and predicted OG for the JB differ, perhaps you added less LME than you thought. And in an earlier thread @Drunkula covered the likely outcomes for you matching volumes with LME sugar additions for your JB kit so you should have had a reasonable idea of what to expect with your brew. And the reason there is a difference between the JB and Wilko OGs is because there is 300g LME difference in the cans , which is why I rarely bother with 1.5kg kits
The bottom line is it's done now, and I wouldnt be worrying about a 0.2/0.3% ABV shortfall.
But if you really feel the need to raise the ABV, dissolve 300g of LME in a little boiling water allow to cool and pour that into your brew and you will elevate the OG by about 0.4%, its not too late at this stage to intervene.
Finally if the yeasts perform and other things are in your favour you should get about 1.008 -1.010 FG although you might get slightly higher or lower.