cooper recipes

[Kennyg]

I use coopers wort and recipes.  I have noticed that the expected ABV  on the recipe very rarely matches what i get.  I have been brewing for a few years so have a bit of experience.  My starting SG on my latest batch was 1.042  six days on I have a reading of 1.008  which gives an ABV of 4.46.  Given that Coopers give a target SG of 1.012 to 1.008 and a final ABV of 5.2.  to achieve the numbers given my starting SG would have to be in the region of 1.048.  The brew recipe in Question was Battleship bitter.  I have checked the hydrometers and they both read the same.  Any suggestions as to why my starting SG is low.

[Kegory]

Are you bottling or kegging? It is my understanding that the recipes assume bottling and the predicted ABV includes additional alcohol from the priming sugar.

I'm very new but by my calculations my Devil's Brew Porter landed within 0.1% of the predicted ABV.

[Tone boy]

Hey Kenny,

I think Coopers may include the sugar from the bottle conditioning in the final ABV...  If you’re kegging then it will obviously be lower ABV.

Not sure if that accounts for the difference entirely…. But that would bring your particular brew up to 4.9%

[Greenyinthewestofsydney]

Yeah as the others have said my thinking was always it includes 0.5% abv for the carbonation sugar. The ABV numbers should be pretty well spot on from an ingredients point of view as extracts and adjuncts are known quantities. There will be a little variation from how the yeasts consumes the sugars though.

[Shamus O'Sean]

4 hours ago, Kennyg said:

I use coopers wort and recipes.  I have noticed that the expected ABV  on the recipe very rarely matches what i get.  I have been brewing for a few years so have a bit of experience.  My starting SG on my latest batch was 1.042  six days on I have a reading of 1.008  which gives an ABV of 4.46.  Given that Coopers give a target SG of 1.012 to 1.008 and a final ABV of 5.2.  to achieve the numbers given my starting SG would have to be in the region of 1.048.  The brew recipe in Question was Battleship bitter.  I have checked the hydrometers and they both read the same.  Any suggestions as to why my starting SG is low.

1 x can English Bitter plus 1.5kg Light Dry Malt: I calculate an OG of 1.047.  Your reading was a bit short of that.  Not sure why as you note your hydrometer reads right.

I agree with your observations about the Coopers recipes often predicting higher ABV than I get.  For the Battleship Bitter, calculating ABV assuming FG of 1.012 says 5.0% primed in the bottle or 4.6% unprimed in a keg.  So, in this case, I think Coopers are a bit off.  However, the ABV is based on their test brewing not calculations.  Maybe their Nottingham was a bit more effective at chewing through the sugars.

[Brauhaus Fritz]

31 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

1 x can English Bitter plus 1.5kg Light Dry Malt: I calculate an OG of 1.047.  Your reading was a bit short of that.  Not sure why as you note your hydrometer reads right.

I agree with your observations about the Coopers recipes often predicting higher ABV than I get.  For the Battleship Bitter, calculating ABV assuming FG of 1.012 says 5.0% primed in the bottle or 4.6% unprimed in a keg.  So, in this case, I think Coopers are a bit off.  However, the ABV is based on their test brewing not calculations.  Maybe their Nottingham was a bit more effective at chewing through the sugars.

I agree, I never reached the predicted ABV