I just brewed my first first extract kit following a successful cider from this forum. It was a brewers best belgian golden ale 5 gallon kit I picked up at Hobby Homebrew Supply. I did a full boil starting with 6 gallons of water (thought I should account for boil off). Everything basically went as planned other than a small boil over after stirring in the DME & LME as I returned to a boil (walked away, totally avoidable). After chilling I took my reading and got a corrected 1.062 when the target range was between 1.071 and 1.075.
I finished at 1.011 witch is the low side of the target range exactly. That gives me 6.7% so I'm okay with that, but the kit supposed potential was 7.5% to 8%.
I guess my question is is this normal for these kits or is there something I should do to improve my process? I didn't get quite the boil off I thought but I kind of like the idea of actually bottling 5 gallons of beer.
I don't know, thoughts, ideas, criticism or any other input is welcome. I'm here to learn
I finished at 1.011 witch is the low side of the target range exactly. That gives me 6.7% so I'm okay with that, but the kit supposed potential was 7.5% to 8%.
I guess my question is is this normal for these kits or is there something I should do to improve my process? I didn't get quite the boil off I thought but I kind of like the idea of actually bottling 5 gallons of beer.
I don't know, thoughts, ideas, criticism or any other input is welcome. I'm here to learn