Newbie Questions

[boatboy24]

Hello:

I've been making wine for about a year now, and in the last couple months have attempted a couple 1 gallon batches from Brooklyn Brew Shop. They've come out OK but my most recent one had a really low starting gravity. I have two questions, really: 1) what can you do if your SG is too low after the boil? Are there any adjustments you can make? 2) Does anyone out there have any "target SG's" for the Brooklyn Brew kits? I'm bottling the Bruxelles Black this weekend and have a RyePA and Bourbon Double on deck after that. It'd be tremendous peace of mind if I knew my starting gravity was at least in the right ball park.

Thanks for the help!

Jim

 

[hiphops]

This isn't really responsive to your question but, if you are in the area, I would go to Brooklyn Homebrew instead (http://www.brooklyn-homebrew.com/). I used to get stuff from Brooklyn Brew Shop, until I discovered Brooklyn Homebrew. I haven't gone back since. (And, I haven't had gravity problems since!)

 

[aiptasia]

1) Add more fermentables. Having an extra pound or two of light DME comes in handy for this very thing.

2) I'm surprised they don't publish a target OG-FG in their kits. They don't even list the grains or amounts. I guess that's to protect their proprietary (whatever) formula. If you do find some grain amounts, you can add them to something like beersmith and it will tell you target OG-FG.

 

[boatboy24]

Thanks for the quick responses.

Unfortunately, I'm in DC, so can't get to Brooklyn Brew. I'll keep the DME option in mind for adjusting up the OG.