a.b.v

[dangermouse]

the kit said add 1 kg of sugar

i added 2 kg of glucose and 1 kg of light hopped dme and the gravity was 1064!

what % alcohol will this turnout at!

 

[Kevin K]

You won't know until the final gravity reading is taken.

 

[El Pistolero]

It would be easier to say for sure if you would list all of your ingredients, or at least all of the sugars and extracts.

That said, if your OG was 1.064 then you're looking at ~ 5 to 5.5% abv.

 

[Desert_Sky]

OG - FG = N

N * 131 = ABV

Thats what ive been using anyways

 

[Lou]

OG - FG = N

N * 131 = ABV

Thats what ive been using anyways

that's what i use too...
and at 68% attenuation (which is a fairly conservative estimate), i get an FG of 1.020... which would be a 5.7% ABV.... i'll bet you get something closer to 6% ABV (maybe even higher) and not 5-5.5%...
but again, we don't know your recipe so it's hard to tell...

 

[dangermouse]

that's what i use too...
and at 68% attenuation (which is a fairly conservative estimate), i get an FG of 1.020... which would be a 5.7% ABV.... i'll bet you get something closer to 6% ABV (maybe even higher) and not 5-5.5%...
but again, we don't know your recipe so it's hard to tell...

......yeh like i say it was just one of them cheap lager kits that come in a 1.8kg tin with a packet of cheap yeast and u just add a bag of sugar and water 2....so i just whacked 2 kg of glucose and a kg of dme instead to boost it

 

[cweston]

Just a side question: do you really care about ABV?

Obviously, one has to have a target OG in order to hit the style, to balance the IBUs right, etc. And you hope to hit reasonably close to the FG, so that the sweetness and mouthfeel are what you want, etc.

I don't think I've ever bothered to calculate the ABV since about my first batch, though. I guess I just figure it is what it is.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Just a side question: do you really care about ABV?

I do, but in a different spirit than your question, I suppose.
1) High abv beers frequently need to age longer to become drinkable.
2) High abv beers suck for when you want to do some session drinking.

But yeah, I'm with you in that everything works in harmony wrt what style you're trying to achieve. The hops will be well off in this recipe, and hopefully no cidery flavors are evident from the 2kg of sugar with looks to provide ~50% of the fermentables.

 

[cweston]

Right. On your point number 2, I even sometimes wish my bigger beers were less big.

I'm mostly a one-beer-per-session drinker, so in that case it doesn't matter. But a second high-ABV beer on a weeknight will really slow me down.

"Harmony wrt style"--that's well put. Historical styles are what they are for a reason--they work. When I taste a beer that's not in line with some established style (like a 1.065 IPA with 90 IBUs), more often than not it doesn't impress me as much as beers that conform (or at least come close) to traditional styles. Truth be told, my favorite IPA tend to be more like 1.065 with IBUs in the 50s. Tame by contemporary American craft beer standards, but truer to the historical style.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

High abv beers are something of a novelty to me if only examining the abv. However, some of them are really good, such as many of the DFH's, Aventinus, Unibroue's, etc. and hence worth sampling. I'll have those at home on the weeknight with dinner or something. I'm a 3-pint kind of guy when I get together with friends which means I like to stay <6%. Now if I've being driven we have to discuss a new model, such as relativity vs. particle physics.

 

[El Pistolero]

relativity vs. particle physics.

Same thing if you have enough dimensions...which brings us right back to the high abv thing.

 

[dangermouse]

I'm with you in that everything works in harmony wrt what style you're trying to achieve. The hops will be well off in this recipe, and hopefully no cidery flavors are evident from the 2kg of sugar with looks to provide ~50% of the fermentables.

......well i was hoping on something a little stronger than a session beer but not to heavy.......i was gonna add some hops but left them out
because this is my 4th attempt at brewing i didnt want to get 2 much out of my depth!

 

[RichBrewer]

OG - FG = N

N * 131 = ABV

Thats what ive been using anyways

I'm lazy about brewing math. I've always used computer programs (Brewer's Workshop and ProMash) to do all of my calculations.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

......well i was hoping on something a little stronger than a session beer but not to heavy.......i was gonna add some hops but left them out
because this is my 4th attempt at brewing i didnt want to get 2 much out of my depth!

I'm not sure what you mean by heavy, but adding sugar will thin out a beer in terms of body...it ferments right out whereas malt extract will leave some unfermentables in there to contribute to mouthfeel. What you probably want to do next time is just add malt extract instead of sugar, or limit the sugar to 0.5kg or less for most beers.

Also, investigate some brewing resources and check out BU:GU (or is it GU:BU?). In any case, it is the ratio of IBU's contributed by your hops to gravity points contributed by your fermentables. If you're going to "jack up" a recipe, you probably want to keep this ratio the same and therefore add more hops.

 

[ultraplop]

I like higher abv beers. Not as many trips to the bathroom.

 

[boo boo]

I like higher abv beers. Not as many trips to the bathroom.

And a faster one to the floor if it were me drinking it. I like mine at a 4 to 5% ABV.
Adding that much sugar to a brew will get your ABV higher at the expense of any taste in your brew IMO. As some of the other guys said, balance is the key to great beer and you can get your high ABV too boot.

 

[dangermouse]

And a faster one to the floor if it were me drinking it. I like mine at a 4 to 5% ABV.
Adding that much sugar to a brew will get your ABV higher at the expense of any taste in your brew IMO. As some of the other guys said, balance is the key to great beer and you can get your high ABV too boot.

............what about boiling 25grams of hops for 15mins and adding it when im adding my priming sugar to the barrel that im using.......would that not be a bad idea! to balance it out a little bit

 

[dangermouse]

............what about boiling 25grams of hops for 15mins and adding it when im adding my priming sugar to the barrel that im using.......would that not be a bad idea! to balance it out a little bit

............wow i cant believe what i just done....i just added them hops to the wrong batch lmao........oh dear! its gonna be a minging batch me thinks!

 

[magno]

OOPS!! What kind of hops did you use, and what did you accidentaly add it to?

Might not be the end of the world...

 

[dangermouse]

OOPS!! What kind of hops did you use, and what did you accidentaly add it to?

Might not be the end of the world...

.....i boiled some goldings hops for 15mins and added it to a 5 gallon batch of lager that i had already hopped..duh! i blame it on a bad nights sleep

 

[oxford brewer]

Just a side question: do you really care about ABV?


I don't think I've ever bothered to calculate the ABV since about my first batch, though. I guess I just figure it is what it is.

I find that its not all about ABV,but if the beer taste good
When we are camping with friends,we will buy crates of beer that contain 3 or 4 different styles of beer from one brewery.
That way your not stuck with a crap beer,and if its a good beer you know what its called to get some more.
ABV's and styles of drink vary at all times,some are session beers,also you get a few that are strictly an after dinner beer(full of body and taste,but not a volume beer).
There is no such thing as too strong a beer,just less of it

Long live choice

 

[dangermouse]

well i tasted a bit of it that was left in the racking cane and it tasted pretty minging b4 it went in the barrel so with these extra hops its gonna be undrinkable..................unless i leave it a few months!:cross: