Youngs Red India Ale

[Ale House Rock]

Just set up my second batch of this kit and once again I got a starting gravity of 1.052. The kit doesn't give any clue as to the intended SG but given I got the same result twice would make me think I've done an OK job of setting this up. The kit does state a final gravity of below 1.010 which is a little vague (but not uncommon). At 1.010, the ABV would be 5.51% which is well below target. To achieve the 6.3% claimed by Youngs, this would need to ferment down to 1.004, which, for a beer like this would seem to me to be unlikely. I've made other Young's kits and have always found them to be fairly realistic in their numbers so this one has me puzzled. I couldn't find any reviews on the forum - maybe this isn't a very popular kit - but just wondered if anyone else had made it and what king of numbers they got. Last time, this turned out to be a really nice brew and 5.5% is perfectly OK as a drink (and first time I could only get it to ferment to 1.010). Has anyone else made this and how did you get on?

 

[terrym]

Punch the weight of all the fermentables you added and the wort volume into this and it will predict the OG. Use extract in the menu. Your OG should tally with that not the other way round. When I did kits I found my measured and predicted OGs were within a gravity point
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculatorYou can never accurately predict an FG as there are too many variables at play.

 

[Ale House Rock]

Punch the weight of all the fermentables you added and the wort volume into this and it will predict the OG. Use extract in the menu. Your OG should tally with that not the other way round. When I did kits I found my measured and predicted OGs were within a gravity point
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculatorYou can never accurately predict an FG as there are too many variables at play.

Thanks terrym. I didn't think of that and unfortunately, I didn't weigh the bag of sugar that comes with the kit - I just added it to the mix. Hey ho, I'll do that next time I make this kit and see what the calculator says.

 

[Ale House Rock]

Its been a while but I'm about to do this kit again and took Terrym's advice and put the contents of the kits into the Brewer's Friend recipe calculator. It predicts an OG of 1.052 which is exactly what I got the previous 2 times I made this kit so still cannot fathom out where Youngs are getting a predicted abv of 6.3%.

 

[Horners]

Its been a while but I'm about to do this kit again and took Terrym's advice and put the contents of the kits into the Brewer's Friend recipe calculator. It predicts an OG of 1.052 which is exactly what I got the previous 2 times I made this kit so still cannot fathom out where Youngs are getting a predicted abv of 6.3%.

Some possible variables:

1. Priming sugar will increase ABV
2. If you use alternate calc which is more accurate at higher OGs
3. If you assume an FG slightly less than 1.01

Combine these and you are about there?

 

[Ale House Rock]

I'll try that, thanks. Anyhow, I'm not bothered that the final gravity looks likely to be less than advertised on the box. I've always found Youngs kits to be realistic in their expectations and just wondered if anyone else had found the same as me.

 

[alfajerry]

Old thread but someone may get reassurance from my experience.
I've done this kit twice, first time I got 4.7% ABV, second time 4.6% ABV.
That's further off Young's claim than brewing variables would account for so I think their 6.3% claim is misleading.
It's a good kit though, although only 17.5 litres.