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Beer/alcohol content of beer

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Expert: - 8/17/2008


Question
When starting our first batch of home brew beer, we were sold the wrong type of hygrometer (one for distilling) and were not able to determine a starting gravity.  Is there a way to determine the alcohol content of our beer (1.016) without knowing the original gravity?

Answer
Well, Josh, you can estimate the alcohol content, but without an OG it's only a rough estimate.

Usual attenuation is about 75% which means that if your FG is 1.016, your OG might have been about 1.064 which would yield an ABV (alcohol by volume) of 6.34%

Yeast health and variety play a big part. Chances are that this estimate will be on the high side.

If you were trying for a medium gravity beer, an FG of 1.016 is a bit on the high side and the result may be a bit sweet. Normal first time beers usually finish out at around 1.008 to 1.012.

Brew Strong!

Chris Bushman
North Hollywood, CA

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Chris Bushman

Expertise

I've been homebrewing beer and mead for about 15 years. I've made beer trips to the Netherlands, the UK, France, Germany, and Belgium.

Experience

I've brewed a couple of hundred all-grain beers and a few dozen meads. I'm a member of the Maltose Falcon's Homebrew Society, the oldest homebrew club in the US. I've attended the Homebrewers Fantasy Camp at American Brewers Guild. In real life I am Optical Effects Supervisor and Laboratory Supervisor for a large movie visual effects house in Hollywood. I've been a fireman, a teacher of English in Okinawa, a personal computer tutor. Other hobbies include orchid culture, koi keeping, photography, sausage making, pickling, and ham radio.

BS Zoology, UC Davis

Member, Society of Motion Picture/Television Engineers http://www.smpte.org/ - Member, American Radio Relay League http://www.arrl.org/ - Member, Quarter Century Wireless Assn. http://www.lockport-ny.com/radio.htm - President, Zen Nippon Airinkai, So Cal Chapter http://home.earthlink.net/~filmlabrat/ - Member, Maltose Falcons Homebrewing Society http://www.westval.com/mfalcons/ - Alumni, American Brewers' Guild http://www.abgbrew.com/

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