New brewer
- Thread starter humble17
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Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
1. Hydrometer
2. Original Gravity (Taken before you seal up the beer in primary)
3. Final Gravity (Taken when primary is done)
After that, there are some sites online that allow you to enter the information and do the math for you. I have no idea what the formula itself is.
Welcome to the addiction!
2. Original Gravity (Taken before you seal up the beer in primary)
3. Final Gravity (Taken when primary is done)
After that, there are some sites online that allow you to enter the information and do the math for you. I have no idea what the formula itself is.
Welcome to the addiction!
OG-FG*133.25=abv
You need a hydrometer. After you have finished your brewing and you cool your wort down to pitching temperature, the temp you add the yeast to your wort, you use your hydrometer to get an original gravity, OG, reading. Once your beer has finished fermenting, then you take another reading and that is your final gravity or FG. There is an equation you can use to figure it out from there, I don't remember it off the top of my head, but I am sure someone will be able to help with that.
Long story short, get a hydrometer.
Long story short, get a hydrometer.
Thanks Nord. Should probably have that somewhere, just in case the internets go away on bottling day.
yeah, look up one post
Love2BrewCrew
Well-Known Member
Here is a Primer on Specific gravity if you're interested in learning a little more about the subject: What Goes Up Must Come Down: A Gravity Primer By: Kay Witkiewicz
Those instructions are notorious for being...bad. This forum and your LHBS are probably the two best resources available for you. I'm glad I found this place - saved me from a lot of mistakes over the last few months.
Intricacies aside, beer is pretty forgiving. Unless you screw up on an epic scale, you'll make beer every single time you try. Making good/great/fantastic beer is a little more complicated. Get a process down, keep it clean and read everything you can - you'll be amazed at the differences between your first batch and the rest of them.
Intricacies aside, beer is pretty forgiving. Unless you screw up on an epic scale, you'll make beer every single time you try. Making good/great/fantastic beer is a little more complicated. Get a process down, keep it clean and read everything you can - you'll be amazed at the differences between your first batch and the rest of them.
The instruction booklet gets you brewing beer. The rest is technicalities that can cause you to brew better beer. I prefer better beer so I learned how to do more of the technical aspects of brewing.
RM-MN said:
I'm a better beer drinker as well. Beer snob as guess you could say. So my plan is to get started, learn, and then adapt to make a high quality beer. I do enjoy a higher abv so that is my end result. But I've read that that isn't very easy to do and can take more time.
The comments I gotten on mine seem to run, "Wow, that's strong beer" but it is only 5 to 5.5% so there must be more to the homebrew than just the alcohol. You might like the middle of the road beer as well as the higher ABV beers.
For your next beer, try pitching your yeast when the wort is cooled to 60 F. and then keeping it near that temperature for a week before letting it rise to room temperature. I think that one item made my beer much better. Leave it in the fermenter for 3 to 4 weeks. That seemed to make my beer better sooner.
