1.013 after 10 days in primary?

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homestarhanes

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Having some issues with my first batch. Brewed my Fullers London Porter clone on 12/31 and i had an og of 1.045. checked the gravity today (1/10) for the first time and it was 1.013 which will put my alcohol at around 2% according to my hydrometer. The recipe kit is an extract kit i got from my LHBS. Is there anything i can do to raise my gravity and potentially my abv? or am i just gonna have to let it be and drink it anyway? Or am i just reading to much into it? Or is the og what i am suppose to look for in my abv?
 
You need to subtract your FG from your OG and multiply by 131. Don't worry, I thought the same thing with my first batch, or as my buddy put it "congratulations, you just brewed NA".
 
I am guessing that you used the % on the hydrometer itself? I've done that at first and found it to be drastically inaccurate.
I've started using the OG/FG formula or this abv calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/
Also, you can use BeerCalculus/Hopville to make sure that the recipe is on target, but I don't know how accurate it is.
 
Actually it's about right where it should be. But let it ferment out some more. If your gravity goes down the ABV will increase. The attenuation is about 70% right now.
 
I gladly bow to all members who have brewed more than me but I always had the actual number as 131.25 because you have OG-SG x105 x1.25 for the conversion to ABV from weight. But I also am in accounting so I like my numbers :)
 
You need to subtract your FG from your OG and multiply by 131. Don't worry, I thought the same thing with my first batch, or as my buddy put it "congratulations, you just brewed NA".

LOL - Always good to know you can count on your friends for that little jab when you need it
 
Having some issues with my first batch. Brewed my Fullers London Porter clone on 12/31 and i had an og of 1.045. checked the gravity today (1/10) for the first time and it was 1.013 which will put my alcohol at around 2% according to my hydrometer. The recipe kit is an extract kit i got from my LHBS. Is there anything i can do to raise my gravity and potentially my abv? or am i just gonna have to let it be and drink it anyway? Or am i just reading to much into it? Or is the og what i am suppose to look for in my abv?

Your hydrometer does not measure ABV. It measures the amount of sugar in the solution. As your beer ferments, the yeast is turning the sugar into alcohol and CO2, so your gravity will drop until the yeast has converted all it can and reaches final gravity. So the bigger the difference between the original gravity and the final gravity, the more alcohol is in it. An OG of 1.05 and FG of 1.012ish is pretty average. So you're more or less spot on where you need to be.

The alcohol % scale on your hydrometer is the POTENTIAL alcohol % if the sugar in the solution at that gravity is converted to alcohol. IIRC that scale is meant to be used for predicting ABV when making wine (which ends at a lower gravity than beer).
 
The ABV number on the hydrometer is an estimated post fermentation ABV which can only be read when reading prefermented OG. It's based on a 75% apparent attenuation if I recall correctly. In any case, you can't use the ABV scale on the hydro after fermentation starts.

Dang, JINX!
 
I guess either one gets you close enough huh?

Oh yeah, either will get you well within +/- .5% vol/vol and do you need to be closer than that?

I never calculate it out but if someone asks me and I remember or look up the OG and FG I'll do .130 since I can do it quickly in my head.
 
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