Is My Hydometer Reading Normal?

[michaelob]

I Am Brewing My First Batch. It Is A Irish Red Ale That Has Been Single Stage Fermenting For 9 Days. I Used Dry Yeast. So Today I Thought I Would Take A Hydrometer Reading.when I Opened It Up It Smelled Delicious. It Was Also Pretty Cloudy, Which I Wasnt To Happy About But If It Tastes As Good As It Smells Ill Be Happy. My Hydrometer Reading Was 1.012 Im Not Sure But I Think That Is Only 2% Is This Normal? Will The Alcohol % Get Higher ?i Hoped Is Would Be At Least 5%.

 

[JMSetzler]

What was your original gravity reading before fermentation started?

 

[michaelob]

I Forgot To Take An Original Reading

 

[ajf]

You can't tell what the alcohol % is from just a final gravity reading.
To get the % alcohol by volume you need (OG - FG) * 0.131, so assuming that 1.012 is your final gravity, if your OG was 1.050, you would have ~5% ABV

If you can post the recipe, and the volume you collected into the fermenter, we can estimate the OG fairly accurately if it is an extract brew.

-a.

 

[DD2000GT]

If you post your ingredient list, we can get you in the ballpart to what your OG would have been.

 

[Edcculus]

Don't use the alcohol % on the hydrometer. Thats only for measuring the alcohol potential for unfermented must in wine making. Its under the assumption the FG will reach ~1.000. Beer rarely reaches that low gravity, so we have to use original and final gravity to calculate alcohol.

 

[michaelob]

Im Not Sure Of Exact Ingredients Just That Its A Recipe Kit From Midwest. But Knowing That The Alcohol% On The Hydrometer Is For Wine Makes Me Feel Better. I Just Didnt Want To End Up With 2%alcohol Beer.next Batch I Will Be Sure To Take A Original Reading. Im Sure It Will Be Fine.thanks For The Help Love This Website.

 

[VTBrewer]

MW's irish red is a 1.042-1.046 OG. So with a 1.012 you'll be a 4-4.5%, which is a fine effort. Enjoy that first batch and get another one going!

*edit* It's also a great kit. I am mostly AG, and loved their irish red AG. Last weekend I brewed up another batch of it, this time kicking up the hops and the roasted barley to get something more like Rogue's Dry Hopped Red, and its oh so pretty. Great choice for your first batch.

 

[dantodd]

The Irish Red from midwest should give you right around 1.048 or so OG assuming you do a full boil and leave about .5 gal in the kettle and brew a 5 gallon batch. If those are accurate assumptions then you have about 4.6% abv If that isn't how your brew went you can describe it a little more and I can help you figure out a closer measure.

 

[michaelob]

If Im At 4.5 Right Know Thats Great. I Still Have About 1 More Week To Ferment. It May Go Up Some More. Thanks. What Dose Ag Mean?

 

[VTBrewer]

ag=all grain.

You may get another point or two drop, which will get your abv up. But, don't get too concerned about that. You're already within range of what the recipe called for, so you did it right.

 

[avibayer]

I had another question about hydrometer readings. I like to get my AG brewing done kinda quickly (4-5 hrs) so i'm not stuck at home all day. So when its time to take the gravity of the MLT contents before boil, i dont wait for the temp to drop. where can i find the temperature conversion for my gravity readings?

 

[VTBrewer]

ebay a refractometer. While you're waiting for it to arrive use this:

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Appendix A - Using Hydrometers

 

[northernlad]

If I may interject a question of my own...
I made a rookie mistake and took the OG before I diluted the wort. My OG was 1.171 in a 2 gal wort before I added 3 gallons of water. How do I calculate the actual gravity?

 

[annasdadhockey]

If I may interject a question of my own...
I made a rookie mistake and took the OG before I diluted the wort. My OG was 1.171 in a 2 gal wort before I added 3 gallons of water. How do I calculate the actual gravity?

2 gallons is 40% of the total liquid, 3 gallons is 60%. So...

.40(.171) +.60(.000)=gravity reading

or about 1.068

 

[weirdboy]

OK I have to know. Are you using some kind of software that automatically capitalizes every word?

 

[Edcculus]

Maybe he just likes using shift...

 

[Picobrew]

OK I have to know. Are you using some kind of software that automatically capitalizes every word?

it does that if you speak in all caps, so maybe he was trying to yell, or perhaps he is only drawing capital letters with his stylus on his Apple Newton

 

[northernlad]

2 gallons is 40% of the total liquid, 3 gallons is 60%. So...

.40(.171) +.60(.000)=gravity reading

or about 1.068

Thanks, I figured was something simple like that.