Alcohol Content?
 

Is there a way to test the alcohol content of your beer?

Not really to "test" it, but it's very easy to do. You take the original gravity of the wort, and subtract the finishing gravity, and just multiply it to get a good estimate of the final alcohol by volume (ABV) percentage.

The actual formula is (OG-FG) x 131= ABV.

Welcome to HBT!
I know what the alcohol content in my beer is because I make it and I take readings. What is it you are trying to find out? Are you questioning a particular beer you made or wondering about beer in general.

Drink 12 of them, then write a letter to an old friend you haven't talked to in years or an ex-girlfriend. The next morning, if you have that "oh hell, what did I do???" feeling, you'll know.

On a serious note, if you head down to the Brewing Software section of this forum, and download Beersmith, you should be able to plug in your recipe (assuming you know the OG, FG, and a few other key points) and get an estimate. If you're staring at a batch of finished beer now, with no recipe on hand, it may be too late. I'm sure there's a way to find out, but it's probably not time/cost effective.

Exactly the reason I was asking.

If you post the recipe you used, we could probably give you a really good guestimate.

well IF you had access to a refrigerated centerfuge and a gas chromatograph

you could find out exactly how much was in yer beer

but what are the odds of that lol

:rockin:

That's funny... is it honestly that easy??

What a jerk I am... For the last few years I've been calcing Alcohol By Weight and then using that to do ABV.

ABW = 76.08*(OG-FG)/(1.775-OG)

and then...

ABV = (ABW*(FG/.079))/100

Luckily I had it plugged into an Excel spreadsheet so all I ever did was just type in the OG and FG... but I still feel stupid.

:cross:

yes, it's that easy. I'm mathematically challenged, so I don't do any difficult calculations. Even I can do this one.

Ok... when I do the simple way on the "way, way, way over the top Utopia clone" thread OG/FG of 1.160 and ,1.040 (current... not final)

... I get 15.7%

When I do my crazy super-cmoputer method, I come up with 19.4%... apparently my super computer method is way off??? That's weird because intuitively, all of my beers for the last few years always SHOULD be and taste like the ABV's that I've calced using that long way.