Help please for a noobe

[lucky76]

I am new to this hobby. For my first batch I noticed no airlock activity in the primary bucket but notice after popping the top that there was fermenting going on. After 10 days(today) I racked into a secondary carboy and took a hyd test and tasted it. My alcohol level is still at just over zero and my FG is at 1.000, it also tasted a little vinegary. Please help, is there any hope for my brew?

Starting kit : Real Canadian Red beer with Coopers dry yeast

 

[phatuna]

Did you take a hydrometer reading prior to fermentation (OG reading)?

1.000 FG has very little or perhaps no sugar left in your wort and likely it is very dry and has a ton of alcohol.

Yes, there is plenty of hope for your beer. Try not to make too much of the taste until you have had it bottled for at least three weeks. Prior to this, there are many tastes that your brew might have, some of which are not desireable.

 

[Arkador]

don't worry about the ABV meter on your hydrometer. Just compare the starting and final gravity to determine the ABV

1.000 is the same density of water, and is going to be a very dry beer.

 

[lucky76]

I am new to this hobby and am really looking forward to brewing my own beer. I did not read in the instructions to check the gravity before adding my yeast. Will do that next time. Will this beer be too dry? Why so dry, I followed the instructions to a t - its a red beer, normally not that dry. One last question. Why does the hydrometer read 0 percent potential alcohol? Is there a way to test the alcohol percentage in the beer. thank you for your help

 

[Mosa]

Hi Lucky,

It sounds like you're talking about the potential alcohol scale on your hydrometer. My understanding is that it measures alcohol based on fermenting out ALL sugars in the solution, so its kind of useless with beer.

Most homebrewers mainly pay attention to the Specific Gravity scale on a hydrometer (showing 1.000 and up). You can calculate the estimated alcohol content by measuring the Specific Gravity of your wort before fermentation (OG) and then after fermentation (FG). If your used extract, you should be able to find an estimated original gravity based on the amount of extract you used. Here is a link to help figure out alcohol content based on OG and FG:

How to Brew - By John Palmer - How Much Alcohol Will There Be?

Check out How to Brew - By John Palmer or pick up a physical copy of it. Its a great reference!

 

[Grinder12000]

Lucky - what kind of recipe was this - Extract with steeping grains?

Those are hard to mess up and you can take inaccurate readings. My guess is that all will turn out well.

You say there was no airlock activity. Did it look like ANYTHING happened? Was there foam or anything different looking to iy beer?

 

[lucky76]

This was an extract kit. The instructions say that the starting gravity should be at 1.03-1.04. Again, I did not check the starting gravity myself but I guess that it would be the same as the instructions. So if my final Gravity is at 1.00, does this sound right and what would my alcohol percentage be? Thank you for the help.

 

[Arkador]

This was an extract kit. The instructions say that the starting gravity should be at 1.03-1.04. Again, I did not check the starting gravity myself but I guess that it would be the same as the instructions. So if my final Gravity is at 1.00, does this sound right and what would my alcohol percentage be? Thank you for the help.

there should be 1 more digit to that number. Try to include 3 places after the decimal.

an og of 1.039 and final of 1.001 is a big differeance from 1.030 to 1.009

without the full numbers, you are somewhere between 3 and 6% ABV

http://www.steubrew.com/alcohol-content-calculator.html