working out abv

[terminal500]

Hi I have read several places to work out the alcohol percentage you do a calculation on the gravity before and after, is there a way to work it out with only the finished wine, cider or ale?
Regards
Tom.

 

[BigYin]

To do that you'd need to know how much dissolved sugars were in the starting brew, from that you can estimate a starting gravity, and then with the final gravity you can calculate the estimated ABV.

 

[Mark1964]

yes your starting gravity and end gravity is divided by 7.45 eg 1.050 sg end gravity 1.010 so its dropped 40 points so 40/7.45=5.36%

 

[terminal500]

Hmm I had a horrible feeling that would be the case.

 

[calumscott]

The only other way is to send it off to a lab for an ethanol assay...

...you'd be cheaper pouring it and replacing it with Bollinger I reckon! :lol:

 

[BigYin]

is it a kit that you've brewed?

 

[terminal500]

Thanks I haven't laughed that much in ages, ill give the bolly and the lab a miss I think. Cheers Tom.

 

[terminal500]

Yes everything brewed so far is kit form.

 

[BigYin]

What is the kit - they often give enough info to give you at least a rough guide to the ABV :thumb:

 

[terminal500]

Solomon Grundy medium dry x 1 and medium sweet x 1, youngs definitive blackberry x 1 and elderflower x 1, john bull cider, youngs Yorkshire bitter.
Cheers Tom.

 

[BigYin]

According to google :

Solomon Grundy medium dry - expect around 10.5% - 11% if you follow standard instructions

Solomon Grundy medium sweet - 11%

youngs definitive blackberry - 11%

youngs definitive elderflower - around 11%

john bull cider - made to 40 pints at 5%, or 32 pints at 7%

youngs Yorkshire bitter - 40 pints at 5.4%

 

[terminal500]

my goodness you made me feel really lazy, thank you very much for all your effort. Cheers Tom.

 

[BigYin]

:lol: :lol:

You're welcome :thumb: :

 

[narmour]

For me the best gauge of alcohol concentration of my wine is the drunk test. Simply drink a bottle and examine the level of sozzled you are after it. I have a target level of drunk and each of my homebrews are one bottle, two bottles or in the case of the less successful brews, three bottle brews :drink: