Beer has low AVB and taste watery after 2 weeks fermenting. how to fix?

Hi
First time brewing beer:)
I used a starter kit. My OG was 1.0375 and I measured it now after 2 weeks and its 1.016.
I used an online app and it say 3.6% alcohol. The beer smells good but tastes watery and a bit bitter. Im trying to brew german weissbier

The beer is still sealed in the fermenter, I have not opened the lid yet .I used the tap on the fermenter to do the measurement and tasting.

Is there any way I can fix it so it gets a higher AVB (alcohol)? Add more sugar and yeast? and maybe add some more malt to get a fuller taste? possible?

Hope someone can help:)

A few questions: What was the target OG and FG for the kit? What yeast was used and what temperature was it fermented at? I assume it was in a fermenter with an airlock. Have you seen any activity in the airlock?

Larse said:

A few questions: What was the target OG and FG for the kit? What yeast was used and what temperature was it fermented at? I assume it was in a fermenter with an airlock. Have you seen any activity in the airlock?

Click to expand...

Hi. Thanks for reply:) Im not sure what target for the kit was. I used the following 3 products

https://www.diybeer.com/au/thomas-coopers-preacher-s-hefe-wheat.html

https://mangrovejacks.com/collections/malt-extracts/products/light-reinheitsgebot-enhancer-1-2kg

https://mangrovejacks.com/collections/beer-yeasts/products/m20-bavarian-wheat-10g

I did verything on the recipe. But I think I added 1 liter to much. I thing I needed to fill up to 23 liters instead of adding 23 liters. Because + the malt it all went up to 24 liters. Not sure.

1. I think the final AVB was going to be about 5% as the lady in the store told me.

I waited 2 weeks before I tasted the beer and measured the FG as described above.

2. I fermented at about 22 degrees C to get more banana flavor.

3. Yes it was fermented with an airlock.

4. Yes it was activity in the airlock for at least one day. Maybe 24-48 hours.

What I did further on was:

I opened the lid. There was some yeast on the sides and on the top. I cleaned everything off with the paper and also removed everything floating on the top with a spoon. Ill add some photos.

I added some more yeast and sugar+ malt extract.

I read "Roughly 17g/l of sugar is needed to produce one degree of alcohol"

So I went to the store and bought malt extract from the regulary grocery store.

I added the following:
225 g malt extract+ 700g table sugar. (This would give 2% more alcohol)
I also added 2 g of wine yeast that was left over from my wine production ( Mangrove Jack CR51)
I stired everything and measured 1.030

It tasted pretty goos after adding the new batch of malt/sugar.

It started to ferment som hours later and continued for about 48 hours (activity in the airlock)
I tasted the brew a couple of days after and it tasted definately better with definately some more alcohol in it.
I tasted it again today and it has slightly co2 bubles in it. It tastes ok but have a bit of mineral tast to it at the end.

---

My questions.

1. When I opened the lid after 2 weeks. Was the stuff on the top normal or some kind of "Flowers of wine"?
2. How long can I have it in the fermenter before botteling. 2 weeks more?
3. Is it safe to bottle? I guess I have more yeast in the batch now. How can I make sure it will bee good to bottle? Can I add 4g of sugar when botteling.
Also I think maybe it still were some sugar left so It probably fermentet higher alcohol than 2% AVB after adding my new sugar/malt solution?
4. How do I measure the alcohol? Is it just to put the AVB for the first measurement and put it together with the AVM measured from the second OG-FG reading?
5. Is everything I did totally wrong and I should not drink the beer at all?

Cheers

To answer your last question first, yes, you did a lot wrong. Surprised it doesn't taste like vinegar at this stage. But we learn by our mistakes. Incidentally, that link to your kit is broken. 404.

In no particular order: You shouldn't have cleaned inside the fermenter. There was no need, yeast activity produces this "krausen" which is normally left to sink to the bottom when fermentation ends. Trying to clean it off introduces a source of infection and air which is not good for beer.

The one litre of extra water you added would have had very little effect on the overall ABV. Maybe as little as 0.1% depending on the amount of DME in the kit.

The OG of 1.0375 is too low to give you 5% ABV unless you were able to ferment out to 1.000 (not possible) and would give you about 4% at FG 1.006. It should have been more like 1.050 to get to 5% at about 1.012 FG. So something is missing there. Those kits are pretty accurate. Were you supposed to add some sugar to the boil?

What you have done subsequently is, well, not something I would have done. The wine yeast

You've apparently added another 14 points of gravity and started another fermentation. If it tastes ok after all that, well and good, if not, bin it and move on.

I found that kit elsewhere on the net. The description on the website includes this:

The kit appears to contain about 1.7Kg of extract, so added with the recommended additional DME, comes to 3.2Kg. Using this calculator on Brewer's Friend gives an OG of 1.052, a FG of 1.015 and an ABV of 4.94%.

As I said earlier, this is normal with kits like this. You can either buy the extra DME or sugar you need with the kit or just buy the can and add the required extra DME or sugar from your own stock.

By your own account, the kit finished out at pretty close to the target FG. You just didn't have enough malt extract to get the required OG. Hence the lack of alcohol.

The additions you subsequently made weren't actually enough, but would be a lot closer.

It's hard to know what will happen, you've used too many different yeasts and other additions. If the wine yeast works, it could conceivably drop the FG below 1.010. I'd leave it, check the gravity regularly and when you get a few days with no change, bottle it with some conditioning sugar. Carbonation drops are the easiest to use.

Then put it in a safe place where bottle bombs aren't likely to do any damage.