How do you calculate ABV when adding fermentables to secondary?

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itsme_timd

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I found a few threads that discussed this but most of the discussions mentioned calculating the sugar content of the fermentables added to see how they affected ABV.

Not sure if my thinking is correct in this, perhaps someone can verify whether or not this would work.

Couldn't I measure OG in primary then FG after primary and get my ABV there. Then, after adding my fermentables to secondary, take another SG reading and another FG after secondary to see the ABV created during that process and add it to the original ABV?

I'm a newbie so it's more than possible that there's a reason this won't work and I'm just not thinking of what that might be.
 
I use a recipe calculator (BeerSmith 2, but it could be any one of many) that provides an OG. Any sugar added post-boil just gets added into the grain bill and factors into the "adjusted" OG. So I don't really need to know the running SG, just the last two that say the batch is done and what the ABV came out to be when compared to the "adjusted" OG...

Cheers!

[edit] You could also take your measured OG and then add the points per pound per gallon that any post-boil additions provide to come up with the "adjusted" OG. That would account for variance from a recipe...
 
I use a recipe calculator (BeerSmith 2, but it could be any one of many) that provides an OG. Any sugar added post-boil just gets added into the grain bill and factors into the "adjusted" OG. So I don't really need to know the running SG, just the last two that say the batch is done and what the ABV came out to be when compared to the "adjusted" OG...

Cheers!

[edit] You could also take your measured OG and then add the points per pound per gallon that any post-boil additions provide to come up with the "adjusted" OG. That would account for variance from a recipe...

Thanks. I'm not hitting the numbers in my recipes yet so this wouldn't work for me. Still trying to dial everything in!
 
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