Post bottling gravity

Hey ya'll!!

This could be an extremely stupid question but here it goes.

I bottled my beer and let it condition. I popped a bottle open today with a nice carbonation and poured it into a glass with good head and tasted delicious. I was curious what the alcohol content was and it read a 1.010 on the hydrometer when I checked it out. Ummmm am I drinking water? Help!

Temp was 59 degrees when I took the test.

 

the difference in starting gravity and final gravity is what you get your alcohol content from I have kegged/bottled from 1.005 up to 1.028
What was the post boil /starting gravity

 

1.010 is pretty much a perfect final gravity for beer. What's the problem?

 

No idea. Literally my first beer, I was just reading the hydrometer and when it got to the alcohol % side it read really low. That's all. Not saying it was bad, just asking if it was right or too low.

 

What was the reading before you started fermenting it?

 

1.044

 

Your abv is roughly 4.5%.

The formula is (OG - FG ) X 131

So 1.044- 1.010 X 131 = 4.45

Some use 131.25 but 131 is close enough.

 

You should let the beer go flat before measuring the gravity. The co2 can make the hydrometer read low in a carbonated beer because it's a little more bouyant.

 

4.5% seems low for a double ipa doesn't it? Again that might not matter, what type of beer it is I mean. I just feel like when I get a dipa somewhere it's typically over 4.5%

 

If it's still carbed, you aren't getting an accurate gravity.

 

Ok. Thanks for putting up with my beer making ignorance! & quick responses!

 

Yes, and 1.044 is not an appropriate OG for a DIPA. Was this an extract kit? If so and you added all the ingredients plus had the correct ending volume then I suspect you probably had a measurement error - i.e. you measured after adding top of water and did not have it mixed properly. Just go with the kit estimated OG if you had the correct volume. The FG of 1.010 is fine (though may want to retake the measurement after it's flat as discussed).

 

I am afraid that if you were trying to brew a DIPA and you achieved an original gravity (OG) of 1.044, then either your recipe was quite low on fermentables or you must have made an error in your brewing process that resulted in having low efficiency. With an OG of 1.044, achieving 4.5% ABV is about the best you could hope for.

It will most likely make a good hoppy pale ale though so I am sure you have nothing to worry about!

 

A DIPA would never start below 1.060 (most are in the 70+'s), so your 1.044 is either wrong or something else is not accurate.

 

Thanks again for the info! I talked to my buddy who is an actual brewer for a job, not like me haga. He said some if the same stuff about my original reading being off I didn't take the temp when I was testing @ first either. I know that would also affect the hydrometer reading. Chalk that initial reading up to a beginner mistake. 😂