Yes I am new

I purchased a hydrometer and used while making my last batch of beer, but I am confused about what the readings actually mean. For example: If water has the gravity of 1.000 and your beer is an original gravity of lets say 1.056 and you ferment to a final gravity of around 1.013 wouldn't this mean that the water has a higher alchohol content? I know that the hydrometer is used to gage the fermentation process but I am confused about how to interpet the readings into alchohol content. Also I have seen SG listed in alot of recipes, what does SG mean. Is it the same as OG?

Thanks in advance for the clarification,

Greg

sg= starting gravity ok heres some info about hydrometers you use them to judge if the fermentation is complete.The higher the starting gravity the more alcohol potiental your brew has.for example a beer with a sg of 1.056 would generally contain more alcohol after fermentation than a beer with a sg of 1.036 most,not all,beers will have a fg=finishing gravity of 1.015 to 1.005 which means that the beer has finished fermenting and is safe to bottle or rack to secondary this a basic explanation of the workings of a hydrometer..brew on dude!!!!!

Thanks. So how exactly do you determine the alcohol content of your beer?

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From: <A HREF="http://www.realbeer.com/library/beerbreak/archives/beerbreak0301.php">Realbeer.com</A>

Alcohol percentage by weight equals 76.08 times Original Gravity minus Final Gravity divided by 1.775 minus Original Gravity. It is easier to scribble this down: ABW = 76.08(OG-FG)/(1.775-OG).

You should remember that ABW is used mostly in the United States, while the rest of the beer world (as well as the wine and spirits world) measures Alcohol by Volume (ABV). That conversion is easy: ABV = ABW (FG/.794).
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Or for a quick easy way to get pretty close...

subtract the final SG from the original SG and subtract one (or just ignore it) and that will give you ABV (Alcohol by Volume %)

Example...

Original Gravity = 1.055
Final Gravity = 1.005
ABV = ~5%

One other thing I do is to convert all my readings to correct for temperature. The higher the temp of the wort you're measuring the lower the reading will be. There's a cool program called "Promash" that will do this automatically for you along with give you Alcohol by Volume, Weight and a bunch of really usefull functions. Do a search on Google for Promash and you should be able to find it. They have a downloadable trial version.

Just some more stuff to fill in around the edges...

Hydrometers measure the specific gravity of a liquid, in our case wort and beer. The specific gravity is a comparison of the density of the liquid compared to water, which as already stated is 1.000. The more sugar dissolved in our wort, the more dense it is and the higher the specific gravity. As the sugars are fermented and ethanol is produce, the specific gravity goes down b/c ethanol has a specific gravity of 0.7939. This is also why you sometimes see things like cider with high alcohol content with gravities of 0.9xx.

The difference in the starting and ending gravities gives an estimate of the alcohol content, as Rob (the other Rob pointed out.

Thanks for the responses. I knew that the hydrometer was used to calculate the fermentation process by fermenting until the hydrometer reading reaches 25% less than the original gravity. I was just unsure as to how calculating the actual alcohol content of the beer. Thanks for the lesson,

Greg

Hi Greg,

Where'd you get that 25% number? That's not right at all and there's no set number to say fermentation is "done". Different brews will ferment to different final gravities depending on what's in them, how much of it is fermentable, the yeast, the temperature and so on. Don't rely on a number like that especially if you're bottling or you could end up with exploding bottles. That would be Alcohol abuse.

The best clue that fermentation is "done" is when your hydrometer readings stay the same for 3 days or more and are in the ballpark of what you expected. I however, prefer not to take hydrometer readings everyday. I rack the beer after the majority of the activity (bubbling, churning - usually a week or so) is over. After racking I wait a week or so, then check the gravity and bottle it if it's in the ballpark and has stopped bubbling for a couple of days. Two weeks or more is even better for conditioning (assuming Ale) but I can never wait that long.

I use the method outlined above; the first racking gets the beer off the trub and first crop of yeast, from there it can sit in the secondary as long as you want. I try to let it age at least a few weeks before going to the keg. This allows the flavors to blend and the yeast to settle.

Rob,

Keep in mind I am still a beginner with much to learn. I actually read online that the 25% of the original gravity is used as a guidline to determine that fermentation is complete. With your method of waiting for steady hydrometer readings for three days can the wort spoil? Is it possible to allow the wort to ferment for to long prior to racking???

Thanks,
Greg

Rob,

Here is a paragraph of what I read regarding the use of hydrometers. It was written by John Palmer:

"A hydrometer is a useful tool in the hands of a brewer who knows what wort gravity is and why he wants to measure it. Beer recipes often list the Original and/or Final Gravities (OG and FG) to better describe the beer to the reader. For an average beer yeast, a rule of thumb is that the FG should be about 1/4 to 1/5 of the OG. For example, a typical beer OG of 1.040 should finish about 1.010 (or lower). A couple of points either way is not unusual"

I may have misinterpeted what I read. The above should be used as a guidline as you pointed out. Thanks.

25% to 33% is a general rule of thumb, but it is a rough guide more than anything, by no means a hard and fast rule. In the 3 days, no, nothing will spoil. It is not wort anymore - it is now young beer. With alcohol (a preservative).

As you become more experienced you won't bother with the 3 days in a row rule, either. In fact, I quickly discarded it after a half dozen batches. You'll simply get to know your ingredients and how they work. This of course speaks strongly in favour of not changing too many variables your first few batches. Pick good ingredients and stick with them. Unless you are lagering, it would be rare for fermentation to be incomplete after a week. But just to be sure, give it another week. So my rule-of-thumb is that it should be done in two weeks. If you like, rack to 2ndary after 1 week. In any case, it is probably ready to bottle/keg after 2. If you like, give it a 3rd week to clear a bit more. There are a lot of "if you likes" in brewing. An awful lot is optional. And believe it or not (I know I didn't when I was a newbie) it is extremely difficult to screw up a batch of beer.

The amount of attenuation is _far_ more dependent on wort composition than yeast. A wort made with high amount of unfermentable sugars will always finish high, no matter what yeast you use. The attenuation figures published for yeast are for comparison, not absolute attenuation.

Thanks for all the tips. I'm glad I found this place. I decided to brew my first malt extract/partial mash beer. I found a recipe which appears simple enough for a bass ale taste alike. I should have all the ingredients I need for it in a few hours after I return from my local supplier. I'm sure I will have some questions once I get started.

Regards,
Greg

Good luck Greg and let us know how it turns out!

Okay just got back from my local beer supply shack and decided to upgrade to some more advanced equipment. I picked up a 6.5 gallon carboy to use as my primary and a 5 gallon carboy to use as my secondary. prior to my recent purchases I was using a Mr. Beer system and using the supplied plastic bottles as my secondary and then bottling to glass bottles. This was completely inadequate for what I really wanted to do. Of course I also picked up the ingredients for my next batch of beer to be started friday night. I just have a few questions about sanitization. The glass carboys are huge and will be a challenge to clean so I was wondering if just good old fashion hot water and anti bacterial dish soap will do the trick? Also will the dishwasher work for cleaning beer bottles?

I can't wait until friday to get started. Its all about the beer!!!

Greg

No don't use any dish soap, it'll be hard to rinse it all out and won't do the job anyway. The best thing I've found for sanitizing a carboy is to fill it about half full with cool water, put two ounces of bleach in, then fill it the rest of the way and let it sit for a while (I usually do an hour at least) then dump it and let it dry before putting the wort in. This method will also clean out the stuff that sticks to the top and around the sides when the beer is done if allowed to sit overnight. You'll probably want to get a carboy brush too for the after fermentation cleaning or it'll be hard to get all the stuff out.

For bottles I do kind of the same thing. Make sure they are clean inside (no old dried residue) then put them in a large tub with the same ratio of bleach (2oz/5gal). I let them soak a few hours then rinse the inside and put in the dishwasher (without soap) to dry them.

Check <A HREF="http://www.realbeer.com/jjpalmer/cleaning.html">this out</A> for more info on cleaning.

I've used bleach in the past but these days prefer iodophor. I use a capful in 5 gallons at the start of my brew session, and empty it just before I fill it with wort. From what I've heard, as long as the concentration is low (but enough to kill bacteria), it won't hurt you or the beer if a tiny bit gets into your beer. So you don't really have to wait until it dries completely. I use iodophor for bottling also.

For cleaning the carboys after fermentation, I rince the big stuff out and fill them with water, then dump a few scoops of Oxyclean (or generic oxyclean) in there and let it sit for a few days. The gunk usually comes off by itself.

I recently bought some PBW (powdered brewery wash) for cleaning, and it works wonders but is expensive. I then tried OxyClean and WOW that stuff is awesome! PBW is still a bit better, but there is not much out there which OxyClean cannot handle, and it is a fraction of the price. Haven't used my PBW in a couple months, in fact. To sanitize I recommend iodophor or Star San.

<a href="http://www.bodensatz.com/staticpages/index.php?page=20020409192207206">My sanitation page</a> has full details with contact times, concentrations, etc.

If using iodophor, you absolutely must read <a href="http://bayareamashers.org/iodophor.htm">this article</a>

Nice article bodensatz! I've got some idophor on the way, nice to hear it's so effective. Good tips on the oxyclean too!

Some good things about chlorine though are it's effectiveness, availability and low cost!

Another advantage to using idophor is that you can get a pretty good feel for concentration levels by sight alone, whereas with bleach you pretty much have to know how much went into it in the first place. A slight color change is all it takes...

I thought bleach scent would work but found out a weak but 'fresh' solution was far more obvious than a strong but 'old' solution.

The other thing about iodophor is that you don't have to fill the entire carboy with water. Just make a gallon of solution and shake it around for a minute or so and that will sanitize your carboy.

Actually, that technique works with any liquid, not just iodaphor.... just FYI.....

When you guys say bleach are you referring to using clorox bleach or a special kind of bleach.

Greg

We are talking about "Brewers Select Bleach" available only in finer homebrew shops or by special overnight courier delivery. It's expensive at $17.99 a gallon but well worth it.

Just kidding.... we're referring to the plain old generic crap you can get at any supermarket for $1 a gallon. Just get the plain unscented stuff....