Your final gravity can be taken with a hydrometer. Since the beer is room temperature it is already close enough to the proper temp to take a relatively accurate reading.

For myself, I usually just use the refractometer. It is close enough for government work, but if you want to get super accurate, then you need to cool a sample down to 60 degrees F and measure with a hydrometer.

For my beer, taste is really the test. If it isn’t dry enough tasting, then I know it needs to ferment longer (or a bit cooler). So, I might put some finishing yeast in and drop the temp a couple degrees and let it hang out like that for a week or two.

However, if you are brewing from extract, then you can figure out your starting gravity by using the points formula mentioned above. Then you just do the normal subtraction to determine your alcohol percent.

Another method you can do is to simply taste the beer. If it still tastes too sweet/malty, then you might need to add some finishing yeast or stir it up a bit and try and wring a little more out of it.

My use would be to determine final alcohol percentage. Is this possible?

Thanks
Dan

As for where to get it. I think I got mine from morebeer.com.

Thanks,
Dan

Table sugar is actually a disaccharide called Sucrose. Sucrose is created by combining one molecule of glucose and one of fructose. Both of these are simple sugars, but since the Sucrose is a disaccharide, your yeast has a difficult time metabolizing it.

The process of breaking down the Sucrose requires the yeast to produce enzymes, and that’s like work for them. Consequently yeast can convert table sugar to alcohol, but the byproducts of these reactions produces a cidery flavor in the beer. Sometimes a vague hint of the cidery flavor can actually brighten up the beer a bit, but if its too much then it can start to taste weird.

(Incidentally, our bodies are fueled by the same thing. We break our food down to glucose as well.)

Once the beer is distilled. The distilled product comes out of the column at “barrel strength” which is way higher than what you buy in the bottle. At this point the alcohol is measured by specific-gravity using a hydrometer because there is no more extra stuff in the liquid. It’s virtually all just ethanol and water. So, given the specific gravity you can calculate the percentage of each.

That sits in the barrels for however many years (at least three for bourbon). Then it is watered down to bottle strength – 40% generally – and bottled.

So, since I never measured the SG at any time, I think the next time I open one I’ll use my hydrometer to measure the FG and use your formula (I still have the LME cans around somewhere, so hopefully they’ll have the points somewhere on the label or I’ll just use the default that you suggested). Then I’ll drink the beer, which is of course the point.

And as far as getting laid, I think I scored major points with my fiancee when we tasted the beer for the first time (this is my very first batch) and she said “hey! this is real beer! I mean, I’d BUY this!” Schwing!

Thanks again.