Testing ABV

[gary lucas]

As a total newbie can anyone tell me how to test how much alcohol is in my brew is there an easy test that can be done to the finished product?

Gary (UK)

 

[david_42]

Not really. Because you can have a lot of unfermentable sugars and unfiltered proteins, there just isn't any simple way of knowing. The best way is to measure the beginning gravity and the final gravity and calculate the ABV.

As an example, almost all of my ciders ferment down to 0.98 or so, but I've had starting gravities running from 1.062 to 1.048. The former resulted in 8% ABV, the latter 6%.

 

[Darth Konvel]

Like david said, the only practical way for us home brewers is to calculate an estimate based on your original and final gravity readings.

Most are along the lines of ADV = (OG - FG) * 0.13, where OG and FG are your starting and final gravity points (i.e. an OG of 1.054 would be 54 points; for david's example, since the FG is below 1, you actually would add a point or two)

 

[sudsmonkey]

I use the formula : ( OG- Fg)
---------------- + .2 for priming sugar = ABV
7.5

Seen that in a couple of places.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I use the formula : ( OG- Fg)
---------------- + .2 for priming sugar = ABV
7.5

Seen that in a couple of places.

I've never seen that, but don't you really mean .002?