Very low original gravity

[The Goatreich]

I just set of my second kit, a Thomas Cooper's Irish Stout. The kit said to use 500g light malt, and 300g brewing sugar, however the lady in the shop redirected me to use 400g extra dark spray malt and 400g brewing sugar, then to use the remaining 100g from the pack to prime the bottles later on.

So, I set this all off this afternoon, and was disappointed to see the original gravity of 1025. I even used two hydrometers just to double check.

Is this normal? I'm looking at under 3% for this beer if the final gravity gets to anything like 1006 or less.

 

[Vossy1]

Trying not to sound patronising :grin: ...was it all the spray malt dissolved and stirred in ?

 

[The Goatreich]

I'm a total n00b to this, so couldn't possibly take any advice as patronising and appreciate you responding so quickly.

As far as I could tell it was dissolved, I put it and the sugar in 2 litres of boiling water and gave it a good stir, although admittedly I didn't pay a huge amount of attention to whether it was completely gone, as I figured the pouring in of the extra 21 litres of cold water would get rid of any remaining lumps.

Is that a likely slipping up point then? If so, am I likely just going to end up in a weaker beer, or 40 pints of dishwater?

 

[Wendy1971]

add some sugar to boiling water and bung it in. It might make your og higher

 

[The Goatreich]

Great idea, roughly how much would you suggest?

 

[Vossy1]

Is that a likely slipping up point then? If so, am I likely just going to end up in a weaker beer, or 40 pints of dishwater?

If you have something long enough to get to the bottom of the FV, sanitise it and then pull it along the bottom of the fv. If it comes out with a sticky mess on it the spraymalt may well be a sticky mass at the bottom of the fv, ie, not dissolved properly. If the bottom feels sludgy, ditto the above.
Did you add the sm slowly to the boiling water ensuring it was dissolving?

I suspect the spraymalt is stuck on the bottom of your FV, which is not the end of the world, as the yeast should still do their stuff. If you've only just set the kit off it's still not too late to give it a damn good stir, and maybe stick the sanitised hydro back in and see if the reading increases :thumb:

 

[The Goatreich]

I didn't put the spray malt in slowly at all. I have a brewing spoon, I'll sterilise it and give it all a damn good stir now.

 

[Wendy1971]

agree with Vossy stir first if no spraymalt present then go for the sugar add a bit at a time dissolved of course stir it in then check gravity etc

 

[The Goatreich]

Yep, there was plenty of sticky treacle substance at the bottom of the FV. Gave it a long stir, the spoon started to come back out cleaner each time. Kept stirring, plus added a little bit more dissolved sugar and now got the reading 1036, much better. Not perfect, but better.

Thanks loads guys, that's a lesson learned for next time.

 

[Vossy1]

:party: I think the kit will be fine, it takes a lot to mix spray malt properly
I used to use a plaster paddle attached to a drill to get it right
The extra little bit of sugar will add a little bit of 'oomph' to the brew :drink: :drunk:
Glad it's sorted

 

[Wendy1971]

nice one should come out at between 3.5 and 4.6 abv depending on finishing gravity :thumb:

 

[Good Ed]

Don't worry you'll end up with a nice beer.

You'll find it is easier to disolve the spraymalt in cold water, even so you still need to stir for a while to get it all disolved. :

 

[Muddy Funker]

Is she suggesting using dry malt extract to prime the bottles? If so that will be a bonifide ballache, the stuff clumps as soon as you look at it. Just use normal white granulated sugar :thumb:

 

[The Goatreich]

She did suggest that, and I wondered about it at the time. It was to give it more body and better head apparently.

Could predissolving it in some water and adding that to the bottles help, or shall I just use the sugar as you suggest?

 

[RobWalker]

She did suggest that, and I wondered about it at the time. It was to give it more body and better head apparently.

Could predissolving it in some water and adding that to the bottles help, or shall I just use the sugar as you suggest?

Yeah it will - you'll definitely need to dissolve it in water first and mix it into the batch in a secondary vessel.

One thing to remember with Extract is that if you've put it in there, it's in there. Every time I've buggered up stirring properly, I've just gone by calculators instead, because it's definitely, 100%, in the brew, and now that you've stirred again, the yeast is going to find it.

 

[Muddy Funker]

She did suggest that, and I wondered about it at the time. It was to give it more body and better head apparently.

Could predissolving it in some water and adding that to the bottles help, or shall I just use the sugar as you suggest?

I think the benefits will be hard to notice, I guess batch priming would would if you pre dissolve it.

Worth trying then give sugar a go and compare the two.

Have a good one :