Gravity

[Pegleg]

I'm seeing a lot of this around, and in beer making too.

It keeps popping up. How you can alter gravity and the effects it has on your brew. I'm just wondering if everyone's drunk, or If someone could show me how to alter gravity?

:cross:

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

The gravity in reference is the weight of sugars present in your wort. It is measured with a hydrometer. Not to be confused with gravity that keeps us here on earth and not floating away.

 

[Blackfoot26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_(alcoholic_beverage)

In a nutshell: Water has a specific gravity of 1.000. Because wort has sugars and other yummies in it and has more "thickness" it will have a higher specific gravity. The higher the "thickness", the more fermentables (usually) and the higher potential alcohol (again, usually). When you add yeast, they eat all that yummy goodness and bring the gravity down.

Gravity is also an important part of style guidelines.

 

[nealizm]

1st make a yeast starter throw it strait up in the air if it falls back on you you failed to alter gravity,repeat untill your yeast have been absorbed by the atmosphere.Not to get to technical but your yeast will start to eat at the gravity of earth and eventually the solar system..So good luck.

 

[RM-MN]

I'm not drunk so here's my take on what you are asking. If you want to increase the specific gravity of your wort you add more sugars. You can choose different sugars depending on what your target might be. Maltodextrine will not ferment so you add to the final gravity while table sugar will ferment out and leave a lower final gravity with more alcohol.

If your specific gravity of the wort is too high, your only choice is to add water.