How many cans of malt?

[Platchet]

I've just made a 5 gallon beer using 2, 1.5kg cans of Coopers malt Extract and dried hops. I 've calculated that the beer is about 3.5% which seems a bit lower than I'd hoped for. Its possible that my OG readings werent that accurate and I'll do it properly next time. I prefer a beer at about 4.5%, should I use another can of malt next time or just add some more sugar?
Sorry if this question is a bit basic!!

 

[mmaguy41]

Did you adjust for temp? That can make a big difference if you boiled part or all of your malt, there are calculators to adjust for temp and also to calculate a rough abv from ingredients

 

[wilsoa1111]

tbh on beersmith it reckons 3.8% if doing a 5 (imperial) gallon bathch ie 23l so readings prob not far off- generally a 2 can job will suit most people because they add extra speciality malts to steep which releases small amounts of sugars but mostly for flavour and body and/or they go for a 5 us gallon batch ie 19l at finish so -20l in fv... if it was me i would be temped to lob in a bit of either 500g dried malt extract (pricy), or a bit of nice dark sugars (eg billingtons) and/or some golden syrup eg 454g g syrup plus some 100g dermera and priming sugar will get you to about the 4.5% mark easy- if ur after a certain style of beer u will prob need to add some spec malts and sugar if just after a nice beer go for the dried/spray malt either way got enough malt to make a lvly beer

 

[Platchet]

Thanks guys, really appreciate that. Will try next time and let you know!