I have been coming to this site for a couple of months now and have seen a lot of posts to the effect of
"I do not have a hydrometer but want to know what my final ABV % will be. here is the recipe I used please help"
My answer to that is first and for most "get a hydrometer" they are only about $10.00 however knowing how figure the approximate final ABV is also a good skill to have especially since hydrometer readings can be thrown off by other solids in the mix.
Definitions:
ABV Alcohol by volume this is the % of alcohol that a person end up with assuming all the original sugars are fermented out
PA potential alcohol this is the level of sugar in the mix prior to fermentation
OG or SG original gravity or specific gravity. (measured with a hydrometer)
FG final gravity (measured with a hydrometer)
If am approximating it I like to think of things in terms of PA the reason being is it makes things simple. I can then use a chart or my hydrometer to translate PA in to SG after the fact
conversion:
one pound of sugar per gallon is good for about 5% PA. I realize some things like honey take a little more and some sugars take a little less but for the purpose of approximating 1 pound to 5% per gallon is a good rule of thumb
All store bought juices and concentrates are required to have the sugar content on the label and that number is in grams so we need to know the number of grams in 1 pound 453.59237 Since we are approximating I make the math simple and round down to 450.
some recipes are in cups rather than pounds. 1 pound of sugar is on average about 2 cups.
The last thing you need to know is natural sugars if using fresh fruit or juice where you are unsure of the exact grams of sugar you will need to guess. With the exception of grape juice which has tones of sugar most juices (or 3 lbs of fruit to on gallon of water) will result in 180 to 450 grams of sugar with most of them being in the 200-300 range.
Math:
3 cans of apple concentrate 180g sugar each in 1 gallon, what is my PA OG and probable ABV assuming all the sugar ferments out.
180 *3 = 540g
540/450 = 1.2lbs of sugar
1.2 * 5 = 6% PA when you look at a conversion chart that will be an SG of 1.042
Make sense???
"I do not have a hydrometer but want to know what my final ABV % will be. here is the recipe I used please help"
My answer to that is first and for most "get a hydrometer" they are only about $10.00 however knowing how figure the approximate final ABV is also a good skill to have especially since hydrometer readings can be thrown off by other solids in the mix.
Definitions:
ABV Alcohol by volume this is the % of alcohol that a person end up with assuming all the original sugars are fermented out
PA potential alcohol this is the level of sugar in the mix prior to fermentation
OG or SG original gravity or specific gravity. (measured with a hydrometer)
FG final gravity (measured with a hydrometer)
If am approximating it I like to think of things in terms of PA the reason being is it makes things simple. I can then use a chart or my hydrometer to translate PA in to SG after the fact
conversion:
one pound of sugar per gallon is good for about 5% PA. I realize some things like honey take a little more and some sugars take a little less but for the purpose of approximating 1 pound to 5% per gallon is a good rule of thumb
All store bought juices and concentrates are required to have the sugar content on the label and that number is in grams so we need to know the number of grams in 1 pound 453.59237 Since we are approximating I make the math simple and round down to 450.
some recipes are in cups rather than pounds. 1 pound of sugar is on average about 2 cups.
The last thing you need to know is natural sugars if using fresh fruit or juice where you are unsure of the exact grams of sugar you will need to guess. With the exception of grape juice which has tones of sugar most juices (or 3 lbs of fruit to on gallon of water) will result in 180 to 450 grams of sugar with most of them being in the 200-300 range.
Math:
3 cans of apple concentrate 180g sugar each in 1 gallon, what is my PA OG and probable ABV assuming all the sugar ferments out.
180 *3 = 540g
540/450 = 1.2lbs of sugar
1.2 * 5 = 6% PA when you look at a conversion chart that will be an SG of 1.042
Make sense???
