Hydrometer Help

Its my 3rd brew in a month and my first 3 ever. I do use a hydrometer and have to google things like "hefeneweizen O.G 1.045" and find threads hopeing to find. What FG should be like "is 1.045 a good O.G", and how to calculate Alcohol content. I've read things such as O.G - F.G then multiply it by 129.
Such as
1.045-1.005=.04
.04 x 129=5.16 Alcohol.
Does anyone have any link that has a comprehensive way or guide of how to determening if O.G is correct and how to calculate F.G. I've seen maybe another two mathematical equations like the one i wrote. Is it correct if not..what is it or where can i find it?

Try http://www.beersmith.com/

With this brewing software you can plug in your exact recipe, ingredients, process, etc. It will then calculate an estimate OG and FG for you, which you can then compare with your own readings to see how close you got.

Try this calculator...

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/recipe.html

It'll figure your ABV based on Recipe, O.G. and F.G.
If you still need help let us know.

the problem with using a piece of software to calculate your FG is that they never seem to take the fermentability of the wort into account. they always take the calculated OG and subtract the yeast's attenuation rating.

example:

OG = 1.050
attenuation = 75%

FG = 50 - ( 50 * 0.75 ) = 1.0125


if your just looking for online tools check out this site.

I down loaded beer smith what is brew house efficiency? ...I know i'm a noob.

TipsyDragon said:

if your just looking for online tools check out this site.

Click to expand...

Link didn't work.

tenchu_11 said:

I down loaded beer smith what is brew house efficiency? ...I know i'm a noob.

Click to expand...

It is how a comparison of how much sugar you have extracted from your grains compared to the maximum possible extraction. As an extract brewer, this is not too important, just go with 70% to get a ballpark.

I strongly recommend reading as much of John Palmer's book as you can. This section discusses efficiency, but you may want to click around.

I wouldn't try and use Beersmith or any software like it until you have some of the basics down. You will not get good answers from software if you have no idea what the questions are. And Beersmith asks a lot of questions lol.

There are some quick equations that calculate ABV (some calculate ABW). Your hydrometer should have come with directions that will have a chart too. Check out this link:

http://www.howtobrew.com/sitemap.html

To find out what the FG should be for a particular style, see http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/catdex.php
For a hefe-weizen, you need http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style15.php#1a

If you are doing extract, your efficiency will be very close to 100% as the sugars have already been extracted, but Beersmith will ignore the efficiency setting when using extract.

-a.