Festival kit low ABV

[Geordieboy]

Afternoon all,
I've been brewing festival kits with a goid amount of succes after I was told to throw away the pack yeast and use youngs brewing yeast.
I've just used my hygrometer and with the packs 100g sugar and 12g of youngs yeast, after a week and it's only showing 2.89%.
There was very little bubbling and hardly any froth when I cracked the lid to add the hops.

Should I add more yeast and brewing sugar?

 

[Clint]

I always found the kit yeasts to be fine. Anyway in response...I'd leave it another week then test it again.

 

[Graz]

Afternoon all,
I've been brewing festival kits with a goid amount of succes after I was told to throw away the pack yeast and use youngs brewing yeast.
I've just used my hygrometer and with the packs 100g sugar and 12g of youngs yeast, after a week and it's only showing 2.89%.
There was very little bubbling and hardly any froth when I cracked the lid to add the hops.

Should I add more yeast and brewing sugar?

As per what Clint said I always use the supplied yeasts with these kits. Sometimes they are specific yeasts tailored to the kit types to impart specific flavours and other characteristics during fermentation. Only exception would be if it was past the sell by date.

The only premium kits that I didn't use the supplied yeast with were the Woodforde's kits where they only supplied 5g sachets, I used to substitute with Safale S-04 then, as the kits where notorious for stuck fermentations with the smaller yeast quantity. However since they now supply two sachets of yeast I use what is supplied with these now as well.

When you say your ABV is 2.89% how are you getting that figure? What starting gravity did you measure on the hydrometer and what is it reading now? You can use this to calculate the ABV from those two readings https://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

For example a lot of kits I brew start somewhere around a specific gravity of 1.045 and finish at 1.010. This gives an ABV of around 4.6%.

 

[Geordieboy]

Hi Graz,
I used my Hygrometer. Starting gravity was 1.032. Test after 1 week was 1.010 when I added my hop pellets.

 

[Clint]

You probably know but worth mentioning that sometimes when mixing up a kit the malt doesn't quite get fully dispersed so can give a false reading. It won't affect the end result.

 

[Geordieboy]

You probably know but worth mentioning that sometimes when mixing up a kit the malt doesn't quite get fully dispersed so can give a false reading. It won't affect the end result.

Simply put, I didn't know that so it's appreciated that you pointed this out thanks.
1 thing I do know, is time in a corny keg in a fridge at 10 deg makes for great tasting beer. I'll be drinking this in 2 months time.

 

[Geordieboy]

If its still git low ABV, would it be worth adding more sugar and yeast after another week?

 

[klaus]

I recently done the Festival American IPA and am very pleased with the result - must admit I didn't take any readings but followed the instructions almost to the letter. I brewed this kit in two batches a couple of months apart and both came out very tasty, good strength and the hoppiness is brilliant.

Reason I split most kits into batches is I do bottles only and find processing more than about 20 bottles tedious (getting lazy?).

 

[Geordieboy]

Well ive always had good results with the festival kits except once when it didn't ferment at all and I was told to throw the packet yeast away and use another, like youngs. It's been great ever since until this batch

 

[Graz]

Hi Graz,
I used my Hygrometer. Starting gravity was 1.032. Test after 1 week was 1.010 when I added my hop pellets.

The SG is way too low for the kit. The 3kg of malt supplied with Festival kits should give a reading of 1.040 alone. Some of the Festival kits also come with a bag of dextrose to further bump the gravity / ABV.

I'd go with what Clint said, if you don't give it a really good stir before taking the gravity reading then a lot of the sugar / malt could be at the bottom of the fermenter (as it's heavier/denser) so the stuff near the top where the reading was taken is weaker. Or the malt wasn't fully dissolved in the hot water before topping up with cold. Or you simply misread the hydrometer and it was 1.042?

Whichever way it's not a problem as it will all get converted from sugar to alcohol by the yeast as it ferments and it it now reads 1.010 it's likely done. Give it another week anyway, I always leave mine at least 2 weeks in the primary, then get it kegged to condition. I pretty much guarantee it will actually be about 4.5% ABV.

 

[Ale House Rock]

What Clint and others have said. Your beer will be fine.

 

[Clint]

Out of curiosity, which kit was it? One to watch for is a kit that should be made at lower volume due to its style,to boost the abv.

 

[Geordieboy]

It's the Fesyival Summer Stag.