A little help / advice please

[Pauliet]

I have in my FV at the moment my latest brew which is pretty much a standard pale Ale. 4.75 kg MO, Crystal Malt, Pale wheat etc which was expected to get an ABV of around 4.5% - OG was 1046. Its been in the FV now for 10 days and is still dropping in gravity - Sunday it was 1008, today 1006 which is looking to be about 5.5%.

For me this is not too bad but the wife / in-laws prefer something more around the 4.5% mark so is there anything I can do to get it back to around 4.5% and why am I getting a much stronger brew than expected? Brew length was 23 litres as per the recipe. Is it podssible / acceptable to add more water when transferring to the FV - apologies if this is a daft question.

This is probably the 5th AG I have done, the others seem to have been within .1 or .2 of a % of what I expected.

[pas8280]

Not a lot you can do about this brew really, what yeast have you used to get it down that low in your FG ?
Is your hydrometer accurate ? Check the temperature of the beer your taking a reading from that would affect the hydrometer reading.
Most of my beers finish about 1010 so the obvious thought is your hydrometer reading.
Paul

[Pauliet]

Cheers Paul, used Nottingham yeast. Temp was 23 degrees when measured and the calculator I use says it takesthis into account, hydrometer checked and OK. Its a strange one, guess I'll just have to drink it myself and brew the others another one

[PureGuiness]

Check your thermometer and make sure you're not mashing too cold. Also a shorter and warmer mash will produce higher FGs and more body.

Think about changing yeast strains to one that will not produce a dry beer.

Even recipe could have a bearing on this.... did it include sugar? Was it mainly base malt or did you add speciality malts?

What was the fermentation temperature?

As already stated.... check your hydrometer. Even with a yeast like Nottingham I usually get an FG of around 1010 (with a mash of 90mins at 66oC). If you are getting any lower than 1008 then either the equipment isn't calibrated or the process is going wrong. Another possibility would be wild yeast infection but you can normally tell if that's the case.

[PureGuiness]

Cheers Paul, used Nottingham yeast. Temp was 23 degrees when measured and the calculator I use says it takesthis into account, hydrometer checked and OK. Its a strange one, guess I'll just have to drink it myself and brew the others another one

Check the hydrometer in distilled water @ 20oC and check it's reading 1.000. If not, make a note of the difference and use it in future calculations. Although if the hydrometer isn't reading correct then it might mean that the OG was higher - in which case you're efficiency might be better than you thought?

[InsideEdge]

If you are desperate to get it down you could add water I suppose.

I 'think' that is what many of the larger brewers do. I.e brew strong and then dilute down to the alcohol they want.