og. and alc.%

[hunter]

how do you keep your origanal gravity low (say 1.045)and still get your alcohol up to 5%.what i'm saying is a lighter beer with normal alc.%.if that makes any sense.i'm guessing it's what fermentables you use,but when i use some of the recipe calculaters inorder to get my alc% up to 5%,it will say the og. is around 1.050 and up.some of the beer i have done had og's that high and finished at around 1.012 to 1.014 how do you get a beer that is say, 1.043 down to 1.006 and be around 5% alc.this might be the most @#$%^% question i have asked on here so far i know but thanks for any replie's.

[Shakey_Dog]

It depends on the amount of fermentables and what yeast you are using.

[bonjour]

It depends on the balance and amount of fermentables in your wort. Yes, yeast can come into play too.

It is easy to nail your OG, just use BeerSmith.
the FG is difficult.  Your 1.043 to 1.006 yields 4.8%abv and 86% attenuation, a very difficult attenuation level to obtain.  You will have to go All Grain as I do not know any extract that is that fermentable.  

Add up to 10% sugar of your choice, Mash for fermentabibility, a step mash, and rouse your yeast frequently.  Doing this I have achieved this attenuation on a Big Beer so it can be done.

Fred

[JM]

If you are looking for a lighter beer, you can use rice solids to thin it out.  that would give the impression of a light beer.  i used to do that when I brewed with extract.

[hunter]

thanks for the replie's,i guess replacing some of malt extract with corn sugar would lighten the beer and keep alc% up as well,the reason i ask the last couple of batches i made were a bit lighter style beer for warmer weather,they were around 4.5%.my buddy's really liked the beer but they thought the alc. level could have been a bit higher,i don't mind a lower alc. level beer in the warmer weather,but i guess because it was home brew the thought it was gonna be more powerful.one of the things i like about homebrewing is that i can control the alc. level.sometimes you wanna get drunk but sometimes you don't.and i find that commercial beers that a lower alc. taste like, well,#$%^.