Can you measure the gravity of beer after conditioned?

[naivenavila]

Does anyone know if you get an accurate gravity reading after the beer has been bottled?

 

[jbaysurfer]

degass it completely and take your reading. But if you don't degass it completely you'll get a high reading because of the carbonation.

 

[naivenavila]

Awesome! Thanks!!!

 

[TopherM]

Why do you NEED a FG reading? It kinda is what it is at this point. I'd just ride it out and drink it.

 

[naivenavila]

I just wanted to see if there would be a different reading from my final reading. Just kind of curious if it ended up at what it was suppose to.

 

[hansen_sh]

Are you thinking that the priming sugar would have altered it or did you not check it before bottling?

 

[naivenavila]

I did check before bottling but I wanted to see if it would read the same. I'm kinda new at this so I was wondering if the abv calculation I got was actually right. Does that make sense?

 

[signpost]

Most likely, your new reading will end up being the same as it was before bottling (as long as you've given the yeast time to carb properly). However, in order to calculate an accurate ABV, you'd need to adjust your OG number based on how much sugar you added for priming. I'm not completely sure, but I have a feeling the amount of sugar used for priming (even for more highly carbonated styles) isn't enough to change the ABV by more than a tenth of a percent or so. Is there an expert that can tell us different?

 

[TopherM]

All in all, what you are proposing really doesn't make much sense. It is WAYYYYY more trouble than it's worth to get some information that isn't going to really do you any good.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Oh c'mon, I did the same thing when I started brewing. No harm in seeing something for yourself, regardless if the information is useful or not, some of us are the "just have to know" type. OP, when I did this, which I did once, the FG of the bottled (degassed) beer was ~.01 lower than my recorded FG. Mind you, this is with a floating hydrometer, so my readings aren't perfect, and there may have been no difference at all. YMMV.

 

[Koffie]

Refermantation in the bottle with a little sugar (8 gram/liter) would give something like 0.4 % alcohol and 3 SG points extra to your beer.

edit: That doesn't sound right .. during the refermantation the yeast will eat the extra suar / 3 points. So alcohol would go up and the 3 extra points will go down back to what it was.

 

[SeattleMatt]

You don't even need the OG if you have a refractometer, hydrometer and beer smith. Degas a bottle, take a reading with both the refractometer and hydrometer and beer smith will give you the OG and ABV. It's pretty consistent with my measurements. The only thing you have to lose is carbonation. Flat beer is still good.