Low FG new to the hydrometer and brewing

So I just bottled my second batch. I bought a hydrometer while it was fermenting so I don’t know the OG. It’s an extract kit with an OG of 1.052 so that should be pretty close. Come bottling day I took my first meaningful gravity reading. I’d checked the hydrometer with water and gotten the appropriate 1.000. I calibrated the hydrometer by first measuring water from a container I keep on top of my ferm bucket. It read 1.000 I then tested the beer and I’m pretty sure the FG was 1.004, 2 lines below 0. While this calculates correctly to this kits projected abv (6.1%) isn’t this an extremely low FG? Especially for a dubbel. I tasted the sample and it tasted pretty boozy and maybe a little thin. It’s the petite orange extract kit.

I’ve never brewed this one before but FG is a function of the strain of yeast used and the fermentability of the wort. American strains of yeast will usually finish at a lower SG than an English strain of yeast.

Boozy, but not a harsh alcohol bite, can come from an under pitch of yeast or a water quality problem.

We would need more details on the number of yeast cells pitched, yeast strain used, and your brewing water source to help with a diagnosis.

Just for clarification, you say it was [quote=“DreadPirateWestley, post:1, topic:24145”]
1.004, 2 lines below 0
[/quote]

do you mean two lines below 1.000 or below 1.010? What kind of yeast did you use on this?

:beers:
Rad

2 lines below 0 as in 1.004. Well above .01. I used Safbrew Be-256 which I rehydrated before pitching. It was the only dry yeast option for the kit.

Water is zephyr hills spring water. I buy the 5 gallon jug because Florida tap water tastes like sewage and pool water and it takes hours to filter 5 gallons in my Brit pitcher.

In my (limited, I don’t particularly like Belgians) experience with Belgian styles, and that particular recipe(did it once) it’s not unexpected for Belgian styles to finish quite dry. Partially because of the sugar usually added, partially because of the higher temps they’re usually fermented at, and partially because the yeasts used are usually beasts- very attenuative. After a couple weeks of bottle conditioning, it will probably turn out as expected.

Interesting… would I be on the right track thinking that keeping the temp lower would result in a higher FG?

Final gravity would probably be the same at a lower fermentation temperature. Esters produced by the yeast with a cooler fermentation could be noticeably different though.

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It could take a bit longer to reach FG at a lower temperature also.

I brewed Petite orange back on 02/27/16 and just checked my notes. I started with a OG of 1.052 and ended up with an FG of 1.004 on 03/15/16 and dry hopped. Bottled on 03/31/16 after checking FG again on 03/28/16 and it was still 1.004. Your beer will be fine. Enjoy. Got better in the bottle after about a month.

Great! Thanks Braque. I just hadn’t heard of such low gravity readings before. (I’m new) did you also do the extract/sp grains with the dry abbey yeast?

Yes it was the extract recipe with that yeast but didn’t rehydrate, just pitched dry. I did a partial boil. I didn’t like the taste of this beer at first but it like I said it got better over time, as many of the beers seem to do. I did add orange peel to the recipe in secondary. If I were to do this recipe again I wouldn’t do that.