what happened

[jimmythefoot]

so it has almost been a week since my wheat has been racked onto 2 1/2 lbs of blueberries in a carboy. i took a sample today and did a gravity reading.

1016, 3% ABV

why so low. i would think due to the alcohol it would be higher. tastes fine. i also would think the berries would have nocked it up a bit. this is not a recipe by the way.

original gravity was at 1050.

also how critical is the temp to hydrometer reading? is there a graft or something that can tell you the difference of reading to temp?

 

[bob1852]

So your OG was 1.050 and you're now at 1.016?

That puts you at 4.45% (OG-FG*131)

most hydrometers are calibrated for ~60*F.

Here's John Palmer's correction table if your sample is a different temp:

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

 

[trigger]

Just a thought, but did you get the the 3% ABV from numbers printed on the hydrometer? I used to have one that had "potential" ABV on it. Never used the, but from my understanding you take the ABV number from when you first pitch, then subtract the ABV number from when it's done to get an estimated ABV. Obviously there's other things that can effect this, which is why I never used those numbers.

 

[rsquared]

Also, did you take a hydrometer reading before racking onto the blueberries? There's sugar in fruit, which is bringing up your current reading. You could have been down to 1.012 before "adding" the fruit sugars, which brought it back up to 1.016. (There is no way to know what the number really was before racking...1.012 was just an example)

 

[Zamial]

other than what the others have posted...I use this site: http://www.rooftopbrew.net/abv.php

GL

 

[bennyd]

Second what AZ IPA said. I ran it quick and came up with 4.45% ABV. It sounds good.

 

[Captain Damage]

Were your blueberries in a 2ndary? Blueberries have lots of fermentable sugar. Without knowing how much gravity the sugar from the blueberries added to the FG after your primary, you can't know what your final FG (after 2ndary) means in terms of ABV. I'm sure someone has a formula for this, but I don't know it.

 

[moosetav]

also, in my experience adding the fruit dries out the beer a little more than usual. the yeasties get are all geared up for the fruit sugars and bring the sg of the beer a little lower than what it was before fruit addition. I think you'll be just fine though

 

[jimmythefoot]

other than what the others have posted...I use this site: http://www.rooftopbrew.net/abv.php

GL

sweet, thanks

 

[jimmythefoot]

all is good. thanks all.