Primary Fermentation

Is it true that the abv im getting in my recipe will not be the final abv. I was told that thats only the abv after fermentation. I get .5 higher abv after the beer is lagered for a month

I don't understand this question

When you say recipe what are you talking about? Are you talking about a calculation you got on a website or something?

????? Not sure what you are getting at,

But, you calculate your abv by taking two readings, your Original Gravity (OG or SG) which you took before you pitched your yeast, then your Final Gravity (FG) which you usually take at bottling time (after lagering if you are brewing a lager. Then you calculate the abv with this formula. OG - FG X 131

What is the % alcohol scale on the hydrometer?

if you prime your bottles/kegs with some type of sugar instead of force carbonating then that will increase the drfinking abv as opposed to the reading you took before bottling, is this what you're meaning?

boydak said:

What is the % alcohol scale on the hydrometer?

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That is called the potential alchohol scale and it really only is accurate when working with spirits. We ignore it for beer and winemaking.

The calculation to giure out ABV is Og - fg X 131

martinworswick said:

if you prime your bottles/kegs with some type of sugar instead of force carbonating then that will increase the drfinking abv as opposed to the reading you took before bottling, is this what you're meaning?

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Actually the amount of fermentation from carbonation is waay to negligable to count towards the ABV% of your finished product. We're talking, iirc, something like .001 degree plato..waay below the threshold of figuring it out.

Revvy said:

Actually the amount of fermentation from carbonation is waay to negligable to count towards the ABV% of your finished product. We're talking, iirc, something like .001 degree plato..waay below the threshold of figuring it out.

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Since this comes up now and then I just plugged it into Beer Calculus out of curiosity. Adding 4 ounces of corn sugar to prime a five gallon recipe seems to get about +.002 SG and +0.3% ABV, assuming it all ferments out. Like Revvy says, even if you're making a really light beer it's a very small increase.

not quite .5 abv the op asked about but it may be what it was getting at, and i suppose it would depend on beer style/desired carbonation level

Killer_Robot said:

Since this comes up now and then I just plugged it into Beer Calculus out of curiosity. Adding 4 ounces of corn sugar to prime a five gallon recipe seems to get about +.002 SG and +0.3% ABV, assuming it all ferments out. Like Revvy says, even if you're making a really light beer it's a very small increase.

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Thanks for calculating...and I realized after I posted that it was .002 thanks for confirming it.

Yes thats what i meant, thank you