Lager Kits

[snakebräu]

Current brew has a Young's Lager Kit, I bought that Coopers Brew Enhancer stuff to go along with it and ABV is a naff 2.9%? Has something went wrong or are they well known for producing a weak outcome.

 

[RobWalker]

how did you calculate your abv?

 

[snakebräu]

OG 1036
FG 1014 and used the calculator here calculators.php?#ABV

Only thing I can think of is Orange food colouring kills yeast? Damm Science

 

[lovelldr]

Maybe you bottled too early?! My Youngs kit lager came out around 4.8% Iirc. Waiting for it to condition (another 2 Weeks I reckon) and will try again then... But, i'm sure the fg was stopping 1.006 our thereabouts...

 

[pittsy]

also 1036 is a bit low to start with

 

[James24785]

My youngs kit also started at around 1036. Think mine dropped a little lower tho as it ended up just over 3%, which I was bit disappointed with. Tasted very thin and not very "lager" like. Was my first kit tho so I think it may be that I didnt mix it all up well enough to begin with

 

[snakebräu]

Maybe you bottled too early?! My Youngs kit lager came out around 4.8% Iirc. Waiting for it to condition (another 2 Weeks I reckon) and will try again then... But, i'm sure the fg was stopping 1.006 our thereabouts...

14 days in an FV longer than any other kit we've done before. First "Young's" Kit though and First Lager kit

 

[lovelldr]

Mine went into primary ferment for 9 days and started at 1.040 and finished at 1.004... Used golden unrefined sugar on mine...

 

[eggman]

Current brew has a Young's Lager Kit, I bought that Coopers Brew Enhancer stuff to go along with it and ABV is a naff 2.9%? Has something went wrong or are they well known for producing a weak outcome.

My brother has just done this kit, his was o.g 1040 f.g 1006 = 4.5%.
It's possible that everything wasn't fully mixed properly, everything will still ferment out but it will result in a low o.g reading
Are your readings temperature adjusted as this can make a slight difference
:

 

[wilkesysublime]

Hi all. My kit started out at 1.040 swell :wha:

 

[Fender Precision]

Hi, I see by your signature that you have added some "diluting orange" to the brew. This needs to be boiled first to drive off the preservatives and other chemicals in it. I would add the food dye to the boil too. If you skipped this step it will have an adverse effect on your yeast. Also the Coopers BKE's tend to be specific to Coopers kits, some require BKE No.1 and others BKE No.2. This may have affected your gravity as they both contain different ratio's of malt extract, dextrose and other ingredients. I think a 1kg bag of light dried malt extract would have done it nicely. Best of luck with your adventurous brew - :thumb:

 

[snakebräu]

we boiled the juice but I didn't want to add the colouring until we were ready to bottle. My pal who kind of got into the brewing hobby with me (who joint funded buying the bottles, kit etc) then seen we hadn't added the colouring and threw it in at the last minute, possibly on top of the yeast