Does my beer have alcohol?

Hey there,

So this is a two part question.

First question: Is there any way I can tell approximately how much alcohol % is in my finished beer after all the process is completed?

I've made a batch of beer using a kit that starts from making wort, fermentation, 2nd fermentation, bottling, and hopefully drinking.

I've attached a picture of my hydrometer with a line about where it falls when dropping it in the beer poured from one of the bottles. To me this seems to indicate my beer is barley beer, and looking at another section on the hydrometer labeled potential alcohol by volume hits pretty much about 0%. Now I am not sure if they are accurate to use for beer or not.

2nd question: I've tried many times to follow the instructions with the beer kits to use the hydrometer throughout the beer making process to capture various readings. I seem to find this process rather confusing. So, wondering if anyone has any suggestions and/or if there is a nice tutorial I can follow for this?

Hope you can help!

Cheers!

 

To calculate the ABV you need a hydrometer reading of the gravity before pitching the yeast and another after fermentation is done. One formula is: ABV=131(Starting gravity-Final gravity)

 

Hey there.

First, you used a kit right? So did the kit indicate the assumed starting gravity (SG) of the beer? If so, what was it? Did you use dry or liquid extract? Do you have a link to the kit you used?

Second, the hydrometer needs to be placed in liquid that is about 68º +/-. Best to look on the hydrometer itself for any indication of temperature calibration. If you put it in cold beer or really hot wort (don't do that BTW) then it won't give an accurate reading.

You have beer, I 100% guarantee it. It is not near beer or anything of the sort. It looks like your gravity or final gravity (FG) is 1.008, give or take. So say you started with a gravity before you put yeast in the sweet wort, of 1.050. That means the wort is at the "50" on your hydrometer. You have a 5.51% beer. See this calculator:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

You will always need a reading of your chilled wort (use a sanitized vessel to pull the sample and stick your hydrometer inside of that vessel. I use a test tube. So chilled wort gets a reading before pitching yeast. About 7-10 days later, I wait 10 usually, you then take another sample. A couple of days after that take one more. If the reading doesn't move then your beer is done. Starting wort will always read lower on the hydrometer and beer that is finished or finishing will read higher up.

Buy a second hydrometer. No lie...they break easily sometimes.

Does that help you?

 

If you have a reading with your hydrometer before fermentation starts and after fermentation ends you can use the abv calculator.

If you don't have those readings then try the extract-ogfg calculator to get an estimate.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/extract-ogfg/
http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

 

Outside of the technical ways to tell if you have beer, the non-technical way is to have a few and see how you feel.

 

So I sit here and try to look all smart and stuff and then you come behind me and just blow it all out of the water with your logic!


I vote for having a few, screwing the math, and post your results OP!

 

That made me laugh!

 

Howdy

Shoot

Not really, unless you want to pay to send it into a lab.

As Hello said, you can look at the specs on the kit to get a rough estimate of your starting specific gravity (known as "OG" or "Original Gravity"). Plug that, plus your post fermentation reading (Final Gravity/FG) to get an estimate of ABV.

Without a pre-fermentation reading, you won't be able to tell for sure, but if you followed all the steps correctly you should be pretty close.

Sounds about right.

Ignore the % column. That is "potential ABV" for your pre-fermentation reading, and is primarily used in making wine. Your beer is already fermented so that's meaningless. Instead look at the specific gravity column (it should look something like 1.000 - 1.090).

The pre-fermentation reading (OG) is a measure of the specific gravity of the wort (ex 1.050). As the beer ferments, the sugars are consumed by yeast and converted to alcohol. This causes the specific gravity to drop. By comparing the post fermentation reading (FG) (ex. 1.010) to the OG reading, you can determine the beer's ABV level. There are online calculators for this, or there is a formula I haven't bothered to memorize (OG - FG x somethingoranother = ABV ).

Hope all that rambling makes sense

 

Send me a gallon, I will tell you. if I remember afterwards

 

Good point. However, a base line must be established:
Day1:
1) buy a 6 of your favourites.
2) record the ABV (comABV)
3) drink all 6 beers
4) attempt to walk a straight line
5) count the number of steps before you veer off course.
Day 2:
1) drink 6 home brews
2) attempt to walk a straight line
3) count the number of steps before you veer off course.

Math:
((# of homebrew steps)/(# of commercial brew steps)) * (comABV) = homebrewABV

 

Hey all,

Thanks a lot for the quick replies! I’ll try and answer your questions as best I can.

So yes I used a kit and the instructions for the kit can be found here:
http://www.brewersbestkits.com/pdf/1020 2013 Belgian Golden Ale Recipe.pdf

One thing I had not mentioned which occurred to me as I read the title of the beer is that my beer is quite a bit darker than I had expected.
The picture here is a bit small to see but if I were to pick the closest colour it would be the second one from the right. So not the darkest but almost.

http://www.brewersbestkits.com/images/recipes/BB Small box 3Dtest.jpg

I was expecting more like the first or second on the left, as this is labeled as ‘straw coloured’.

I do see in the instructions that it has listed approximate OG and FG just under the beers info part.

Also looking over my notes on the instructions I’ve found I wrote 1.055 for OG which isn’t toooo far off from the suggested value. Now that hunter_la5 has mentioned that I should be looking at the numbers 1.000…etc I think understand a bit better which to look at next time so I’m not questioning what I am reading.

Putting my values in the calculator (1.055 – 1.008) I get around 6.17% alcohol. However seeing as I’m not 100% sure how I ended up with the 1.055 written down I imagine I’m close to the 5.5% as suggested by Hello.

I’m just in the process of ruining another beer and going to try and take another FG reading once all the fizz settles down. Will post back with results.

Rockn_M your suggestion is great. I had tried a few beers already but I just wanted to check first to make sure I wasn’t going to drink “bad” beer or something.

FYI Hello, I actually have two hydrometers. I got a second because I got frustrated reading the first one. Of course I blamed my tools.

Anyway thanks all. I guess what confused me the most was the different numbers on the hydrometer and not being 100% sure which ones to read.

Cheers!

 

Whatever the case, it sounds like you made beer! Congrats!

You mentioned fizz. Have you bottled and carbonated the beer already?

 

Hey hunter_la5,

Yeah I've already bottled. Can't do FG reading?

My reading from the beer is roughly what was estimated earlier. I'd say it could also be around 1.007.

Cheers!

 

That kit claims an SG or OG of 1.071 at minimum. You have a nice strong beer there. Drink 3 and tell us how it goes.

 

Bet he's wasted already... Lol.

 

Will try drinking some more probably once I get a few people to help out.

 

We're gunna need your findings. 🍻