Tastes good, low alcohol

[gerritvb]

I am enjoying my first homebrew batch as I type, my 2nd round is in the secondary carboy and my 3rd is bubbling away in primary.

Question: I was suspicious my first batch was low on alcohol, tested it and the hydrometer said about 2%. The beer is an EPA, tastes great, but with little alcohol. Experts, any explanation?

For reference: fermented for 3+ weeks, priming sugar carbonation, liquid yeast, bottled.

 

[noggins]

what was the recipe, method(extract/grain/partial), and your OG?

 

[TacoBrew]

What was your gravity reading going into the fermenter and at bottling. My guess is you calculated incorrectly.

 

[jonmohno]

Do you know your OG and FG? I guessing your reading a finally gravity of 1.014ish? You need a origional gravity then final then do some math. Sounds like you just looked at the other side of the percentage reading.

 

[Clann]

 

[FromZwolle]

I am enjoying my first homebrew batch as I type, my 2nd round is in the secondary carboy and my 3rd is bubbling away in primary.

Question: I was suspicious my first batch was low on alcohol, tested it and the hydrometer said about 2%. The beer is an EPA, tastes great, but with little alcohol. Experts, any explanation?

For reference: fermented for 3+ weeks, priming sugar carbonation, liquid yeast, bottled.

I'm going to make some assumptions here. You read the 2% mark once your beer had completed fermentation an assumed that meant there was 2% alcohol in the beer. What you were actually reading was 2% potential alchohol or 1.012 specific gravity. What you need to do to find the alcohol content is take the original gravity, subtract the 1.012 and multiply by 131. Without the OG (original gravity) measurement, we can guess the og if you can provide a recipe.

 

[gerritvb]

You are all correct and that's why I put this question on the beginner page... so much to learn.

To be clear, when exactly do I take the OG reading?

Thanks!

 

[beaksnbeer]

You are all correct and that's why I put this question on the beginner page... so much to learn.

To be clear, when exactly do I take the OG reading?

Thanks!

When it's cool enough to go into fementer I check mine right before adding the yeast starter. Take that reading and a reading before bottling the difference is amount of alcohol

 

[noggins]

eventually you'll learn to take gravity just before you finish your boil, in case you need to supplement the gravity with some dme; at which point you would use an online calculator to adjust for temperature...for now you can do what beaksnbeer said.

 

[Sweetchuck]

"Tastes great, less filling".

For the commercially beer swilled impaired, that means you can drink a half case of it and still be able to write a check for the bill.

For homebrewers, that means you're practicing - and enjoying the fruits of your labor, "politically correct".

... sounds good anyway.

 

[cravej]

If you post up the recipe/volume/final gravity, then we can probably figure out the abv.

 

[gerritvb]

Great info, thanks again!

So no alcohol is gained during between bottling and drinking?

 

[oldmate]

Very little alcohol is added.

I think you were reading your hydrometer wrong. Was the beer on around 1.010 - 1.015? That would correspond to a reading of 2% ABV on the alternate scale (usually on the back or to the side of the specific gravity readings). Unless you took a reading before you added the yeast I'm not sure there is a way to accurately determine the alcohol content, but then again, I know almost nothing when it comes to beer so someone might be able to help you if you post your grain bill and procedure.

The idea of the hydrometer is to take a reading before you pitch the yeast and then again when you are bottling. Using the difference between these readings allows for you to determine exactly how much sugar as been converted to alcohol, which in turn allows for an estimated % ABV.