First Brew - Strength

[neil007]

Hello all,

Im brewing a kit beer - all malt extract. Its fermenting well enough. However, I didn;t take an original hydrometer reading. I wonder how do I know when its complete and also how do I know how strong it is (meant to be 4% ish)

One final question, my hydrometer has a 'potental alcohol %' tab on it - does this only have relevance if measuring the wort - rather than at the end of the fermentation?

Very grateful for any advice! :drink:

 

[Wez]

The only real way to tell exatctly how strong it is would have been to take a reading before pitching the yeast. But don't worry, if the kit says that it will make a 4% beer the Starting Gravity (SG) would have been around 1.042 to 1.044 depending on what yeast you are using you can expect it to drop around 70% of the gravity points, which would leave you with a Final Gravity (FG) of ~1.010 to 1.012 although in my experience with kits i'd be happy with a stable reading over 2 days under 1.014

Hope that helps and welcome to the forum :thumb:

 

[neil007]

cheers and many thanks, yes it was meant to be 1040 at start and is now 1025, final is meant to be 1009

i now think i realise that as the fermentation approaches completion it gets closer and closer to the 1.000 level (eqiv to water) and so these '%' readings on the hydrometer must relate to an estimate of alcohol % at the starting point.

 

[Wez]

yep i think you're right (although i've never looked at mine )

Take a look at the calculator button on the banner - there is an abv calc there (as well as lots of others)