Specific Gravity

Just looking for calculations.

St. Paul porter, liquid yeast (starter).

OG 1.062 at 49.5 degrees
Today's reading 1.022/3 66 degrees

Today, 5 days later, I noticed activity in the beer had slowed to a complete stop so I took a reading, gently moved the yeast and now I hear activity in there again!

So I'm wondering where I'm at in terms of alcohol and fermentation? Can someone recommend a calculator or equation?

Thanks!

You are at 5.22% alcohol. Depending on your ingredients and yeast you may be pretty close to being done.

May be close to the end of fermentation, but you'd be well served giving it another couple weeks in the fermenter.

The formula I use is.
OG - FG times 125 and then times that result by 1.05. This will give you the alcohol content.

Very helpful, thanks!

Another question. I live in maple sugar country and was thinking of using good maple in place of the bottling sugar for this porter. I've heard there is a calculator or chart that might help me figure out the ratio. Anyone know?

Actually, I just found this http://www.brewblogger.net/index.php?page=tools&section=sugar&action=entry.

Too bad it won't let me mix and match. I have the feeling sugar, malt and maple would be a nice combination for this beer, but it seems risky.

Brewblogger is good software, I use it.

That being said, honey and maple syrup can be difficult to calculate priming amounts with. If you buy it from the grower, or produce it yourself like I do up here in VT, you can't be positive of the sugar amounts.

If i want the flavor of either, they go in post boil or secondary.

stellaontap said:

The formula I use is.
OG - FG times 125 and then times that result by 1.05. This will give you the alcohol content.

Click to expand...

Or: (OG-FG)*131

@AZ IPA- ah, that makes sense.

@VTBrewer - I like your idea. What amount of malt and maple would you recommend for a 5 gal porter in the secondary?

Also, have any of your brewed the St Paul before? When I tested it two days ago it was perhaps the most bitter liquid I've ever tried. I imagine the conditioning will take care of a lot of that, but just checking.

And thanks.

I added 32oz of grade c (dark) maple syrup (boiled in two cups water) to my secondary when I made Denny Conn's vanilla bourbon porter a few years ago. It was delicious.

Notes are here:

http://clubhomebrew.com/index.php?page=brewBlogDetail&filter=VTBrewer&id=4

Of u think u will make brewing a permanent hobby than I think it is well worth the money to invest in a brewing program. I use promash and find that it makes life alot easier...even for new brewers.

I am and I'm interested, but I also remember seeing (somewhere, where?) a usb device that sits on top of the carboy and plugs into your usb to give an exact reading without needing to continually open and test.

Well, brewing software is more for the formulating of your recipes and figuring out what your expectations should be. Whether you have a usb device that reads your SG or not, you'll still want to have all the other calculators available to you that you can.

As you start to brew more often, you probably won't be taking that many gravity readings. Once you have a pipeline, its no unusual to just take one as a cursory note after 5 weeks in primary when you go to bottle.

jambafish said:

I am and I'm interested, but I also remember seeing (somewhere, where?) a usb device that sits on top of the carboy and plugs into your usb to give an exact reading without needing to continually open and test.

Click to expand...

That sounds interesting! If that is true I would be interested in tryin it out. Post on here if you ever find out where you got that information.

I racked to the secondary today. After reading a lot of posts regarding maple and the issues of drying out my beer in the secondary, I chickened out and didn't add it. Instead, I added a mere 3.5 oz of bourbon. Again, very little because I simply wanted to see what it comes out like on the other side.

I retook my gravity (before adding bourbon) and think I might have been remiss in my earlier OG reading. I might be making this up, but it seems now that my OG was 1.044. Today's SG was 1.020. This would make my alcohol 3.14400. That can't be right, can it? It should be around 5. Will it pick up alcohol in the bottles?

If this is true, should I try adding sugar to the secondary? Regardless of the stench of the wart, it's finally tasting like beer, but bitter as hell. I'm imagining the secondary and bottling will help with that, but the alcohol has me worried.

As your fg drops your alcohol content goes up. Download my brew chart below in my signature and plug in your recipe and brewday results. It will do all the math for you and you'll then have record of everything you've done so you can replicate/troubleshoot the beer in the future.

Good luck.

cp

How did your OG change. your original post said 1.062 but now 1.044?

While studying the hydrometer I suddenly realized my partner and I were looking at the wrong measurement. I backtracked and arrived at 1.044.

If this beer succeeds it'll be by the grace of some superior power because something has gone wrong almost every step of the way. I'm not complaining, I like the learning, but I worry for my beer.

CP, I don't have the $ to spend the $8 buck or so on this right now. Perhaps next brew. Thanks for the link.

The brew chart is free for all to use. Won't cost you any money.

Click the link, when the pop up shows up hit "no", choose slow download on the right hand side and you should have it. If that doesn't work shoot me a pm with your email address and I'll send it to you via email.

cp

Awesome. It's downloading now! Thanks.

Good, glad it worked for you.

Let me know if you have any questions etc...

cp