So I brewed up the new American Rye extract kit (5 gallons) and loved the whole brewing process and loved the aroma. Having an early-onset senior moment, I forgot to thoroughly swirl up the wort/chilled water mixture before taking my OG reading — my BRIX reading came in super low around 4, which is WAY off by like 6 BRIX. So right off the bat I flubbed up my reading.
The fermentation process seemed off the hook, with a ton of blow-off into my overflow container, and after about a week and a half of fermentation it’s finally slowed down and had a BRIX reading of 5 (right away that tells me that I was basically measuring sweet water at the beginning).
If I take NB’s assumed OG value off the box and then calculate that against my current reading, that puts my brew at under 3.0% ABV. So my question is this: assuming that my estimations are correct, would adding candied sugar help in boosting up the ABV to a drinkable beer or am I basically going to end up with beer-flavored water with a higher ABV from adding the candied sugar?
I followed the instructions to the letter and added my water up to the 5-gallon mark — I just can’t see how I could have possibly overshot this one. The color looks fine[/url] to me and in the carboy had a [url=https://picasaweb.google.com/112361123248632104801/Beers#5671152242410603298]deep dark amber color
https://picasaweb.google.com/112361123248632104801/Beers#5671152641271825746
, and the aroma seems on.
Would adding candied sugar help at all if I think the ABV is a bit low?
