Is my beer too strong?

[ceteri]

I have just made an extract brew 23l:

2kg light extract
1kg medium extract
60g Fuggles
60g Northern Brewers

I have allowed it to cool and the SG is massive (suggesting it is going to come out at about 7%). Have i put too much extract in?

if so could i just water down the wort to make things better e.g. run off 5 litres of wort and replace with water? if so how much would you suggest?

I'm making this brew for christmas and dont want it to blow my head off after 2 pints. i'm aiming for around 4%

 

[Goat Boy]

Wouldn't want to drain wort off then top back up. Ideally dilute what you have so you end up with more! (FV size permitting though)

 

[alanywiseman.]

I have found 3kg of DME will give a 6% beer depending on the attenuation of the yeast. Personelly I would dilute and end with more beer, even if that meant fermenting some in a 5L water bottle. This would allow you to experiment with dry hopping for example :hmm:

 

[mike77]

I just ran 3kg DME and 23l water through a calculator and it suggested that your OG should have been about 1.049. In which case you aren't to far off what you were after. Perhaps someone can verify this.

 

[morethanworts]

Maybe the FV markings are out? How are you measuring?

I'd top up and trust the hydrometer (at the correct temperature). My calc agrees with 1.049 for 3Kg of DME in 23L. Depends on the AAs, but I'm sure you've got enough IBUs (for a best bitter/ESB) going in there to balance, even after the top up.

 

[Baldbrewer]

+1 for calibrating your FV they can be quite inaccurate on the printed markings mine was a litre out at the printed 25L mark :

 

[ceteri]

The OG is 1.049 on my hydrometer, but next this it says 'potential alcohol 8%' I'm not sure what to do now?

On the hydrometer the 'start beer' band is between 1.030 and 1.040 and 'start wine' is between 1.044 and 1.090. The hydrometer came with my first youngs homebrew kit.

 

[jonnymorris]

Ignore the words... I can only assume that means 100% attenuation. With a starting gravity of 1.049 you're looking at about 5%. Sounds good to me.

 

[ceteri]

Thanks, I'm going to use safale S - 04 does this make a difference?

 

[jonnymorris]

Nope. Best of luck.

 

[rpt]

The potential alcohol scale is only relevant to wine making. Wine can end fermentation with a gravity below 1 because all the sugar ferments. Beer contains more complex sugar so only 75% or so ferments. If you use the forum attenuation calculator with an OG of 1049 and attenuation of 75% you get an ABV of 4.9%.