New Brewer needing a bit of help

[Tommy Brewer]

Hello all fellow Brewer's

Im knew to this game, only on my second Lager kit. Didn't think for one second that i would enjoy it so much.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I have been reading lots of different posts about hydrometers and the thing is, the first time round i didn't really do it properly, just bottled after approx. 8 days.

It turned out alright but didn't really know what strength i was drinking, the kit did say it produced a 4.8% lager, but this time i would like to measure it myself.

Only problem is i completely forgot to take a reading before fermentation, so now i've measured 1006 two days running, what does this calculate to?

 

[bobsbeer]

Welcome :

 

[nook6]

Hi

Welcome to the forum

Dave

 

[oldbloke]

Without a starting gravity to compare it against, it only tells you the brew's ready to bottle, I'm afraid.
You need the difference between the two to work out how much sugar is now alcohol

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome, as OB said not much you can do now, apart from enjoy the beers.

 

[jkp]

Did the kit quote a target original gravity? If so you could use that as a guide as to what your OG might have been.

 

[Papa G]

Hi, welcome to the forum :

 

[joe1002]

Welcome to the forum :

 

[PaulCa]

I don't bother with readings anymore. I probably should, but I don't.

Generally speaking a 1.8Kg kit of liquid (hopped) malt will come out at about 3% without additional sugar and roughly speaking that goes up by about 1% per 500g of sugar. That's close enough for me.

So if you brew it with the recommended kilo of sugar you will get 4.6%-5.0% and a proper average strength beer. If you want a summer swill beer (session beer), then drop the sugar to 500g or less and you can chug it down you and not end up plastered after 4 pints. Similarly if you up the sugar to 1.5Kg (I wouldn't recommend higher) and it will come out at 6% and you can get your friends legless.

Note that sugar just produces alcohol and can degrade the taste of the beer, drying it out and hiding the flavour. You can instead use dried malt as a 1:1 swap for sugar and get roughly the same strength (a little lower maybe), but the flavour will be increased with the alcohol maintaining a balance.

Best advice I can give you is.... patience. Don't panic, carry on, it will make beer. Beer is good.

 

[Tommy Brewer]

Nice one guys, i'll make sure i take the readings at the right time on the next brew.