Easily Calculate ABV of Homebrew Mead, Wine, Cider and Beer (how much alcohol did you make?) 

It's cool that you are always willing to explain these things over and over. I realize it's for the newbies that may have just now discovered the channel. As always you guys are awesome. 🥇

Thank you for making these videos. I'm new to all of this and have been learning a ton from you guys.

Nice, simple and accurate enough for me :) This definitely beats writing an arbitrary ABV percentage on my labels.

My daughter’s boyfriend is coming over and wants a lesson in mead making. This video is right on time, I’m going to send it over to him after the demo of setting up a mead. He’ll be jumping off the deep end right away as I’d promised my daughter to mix up a batch of her favourite as soon as the key ingredient was on offer: passionfruit mead. And whaddaya know: passionfruit were on offer today! So excited to get a homebrewing apprentice! Even if it stays at this one session. Although I doubt it, because he lokes to drink my brews…

Gute Jule kids!! Happy Birthday Derica.

Love this kind of style video!! Bravo

I think my last final ABV went up to "ok, I'm not driving after this one".

I just did this a few days ago when I started a batch of City Steading Brews ginger mead!

Thank you for the videos 😊

I just watched your video series for making ginger mead and loved it! Thankyou. Keen to have a go at it myself. That said, I have a galangal plant in my garden we sometimes use for cooking. So I thought that maybe I could use that instead of ginger? I'm curious if you've ever tried making mead with galangal and what it was like. Since the flavours of ginger and galangal are quite different, I'm curious how different the flavour might be after fermenting ...

I learned something interesting about what specific gravity readings relate to. 1 liter of pure water weighs 1000 grams, or 1kg. The specific gravity of water is 1.000. If you took a must with a specific gravity readings of 1.110, and measured 1 liter of it, that liter of liquid would weigh 1,110 grams, or 1.11 kilos. Specific gravity is the weight of 1 liter of the fluid in grams. If you had an exact measure of fluid, and a very precise scale, you could get gravity readings that way. Not as easy, but it gives a good reference for what you're measuring with the hydrometer.

For some reason I thought it would be difficult to calculate so I've always just used the online abv calculator. That's for explaining this without making it complicated

Thanks big man :)

INTERESTING!

Question from a newbie: Can you bottle and pasturize a brew in order to store it safely when you don't know the reading? I didn't have a hydrometer with my 1st simple red wine I tried, so when did get the hydrometer, I just took a reading, waited and took it again. Once the reading stayed the same, I bottled and pasturized to stabilize just in case. Any issues doing this, and can I pasturize a brew at any time to stop fermentation at the taste I like? Thanks.

I made a wine by juice, had no chemicals in. We added sugar But after fermenting it is way too sweet. We used a brewsy pack because we had it. Is there a way to make it more dry without diluting?

Hey! Thanks for being such a beacon of knowledge!! I have a question about pasturizing. This is my first mead. My OG was 1.112 it went dry after 2.5 weeks and is now at 1.000. I racked it off the lease and back sweetened with about 1 pound of honey and now my gravity is 1.030. I don't really want it to ferment more, and I'm wondering if there is any harm pasturizing it now, with all the floaty yeasts. So, is there?

Have you ever deliberately made vinegar?

3:05 KITTY. Rascal? I know we've seen Tigger before... Hi Rascal!

I've just watched this video AGAIN!!!!! (started making wine when I was 25 stopped about 33 started again 5 years ago) I had to watch this again because I just did a strawberry wine starting grav 1.092 after 6 days I took bag our with strawberry pulp in grave was 1.010 thought OK then after another 2 weeks (FORGOT ABOUT IT) grav is 0.96 (I even took a picture because I have never had a brew go so low.... and I never had a brew that was 17+% MOST OF MY BREWS GAT AROUND 11-13 AND THAT'S OK FOR ME but I will say IT IS dry but as long as you sip it and don't drink it WoW can't wait to try this in 6 months, then a year IF IT LASTS THAT LONG??????

Outstanding description of ABV calculations. I'm a retired Marine who needed a hobby and you and Derica inspired me. I currently have your "store" bought wine and mead brewing and hope they turn out - I'm not picky, if it's booze I'm happy. Although I use a traditional hydrometer I can barely read the numbers. What is your opinion on these new floating meters that remain in the brew and use wi-fi to transmit the gravity readings to a phone or computer? Are they worth a look or should I just get new glasses? Thanks and Semper Fi - Ken

Good morning

Thank you for your tips. I'm currently making a mix fruit cocktail using a local rum. I am usually cook the rum at very low temperature between 3 and 5 minutes with herbs and cinnamon to reduce the rum's strong odor. I understand the temperature of the alcohol will change after cooking. Once it's cooling I mixed it up with honey and blended fruit until I got the consistency and texture I wanted for my cocktail. Could you explain when should I measure the original and the specific gravity of the mixture,? Is it one before the cooking and after the mixture? Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks

I'm making Mead for the first time for my boyfriend 😅 he's always wanted some! Is there a hydrometer you recommend to help get a bit of a better reading? Also how do you read a hydrometer 😅 thank you so much for posting this video it helped a bunch! 🎉

Would this formula work for kombucha? Since it's not only Yeast but there are bacteria as well and some sugar goes towards vinegar rather than alcohol. ???🍾

So my recipe for wine has you let the yeast ferment in the mix for about a week, then add more sugar and leave it until it's done. How would you calculate ABV for that? Would you do it twice, one for that first week then add the sugar and do it a secone time for the final, or should I ignore the first week and only start measuring after adding that second batch of sugar?

Have you tried the ATC Refractometer that is designed for ABV? I have a friend that has one that I borrowed, I tested Vodka, was exactly what the bottle stated, tried it on store bough wine, on target, then tried it on my new wine, seemed to be in range of what I expected.

Quick question. I'm in the process of making my first honey mead. I completely forgot to take the first reading and now 7 days in and just wondering if there is a way to figure it out after fermentation?

Is there a way to test abv if somebody's hydrometer didn't show up until 4 days into fermentation? Asking for a friend

So the original gravity is just the gravity of the must? Or do you take the gravity with the yeast nutrients and yeast?

How do I calculate my ABV after I backsweeten? For example a 1 gallon batch with a OG of 1.130 and a FG 1.000 which is 17.5% ABV then I add 10 oz of honey to backsweeten. Now what is my ABV?

I can understand why people would like to know what there ABV is... I use to, for many years not I just make sure my starting gravity is somewhere between 1.085 and 1.110 "ISH" and as long as it get down to 1.000 (from 1.085) or 1.010 (from 1.110) I know its OK and I can't be bothered working it out!! UNLESS it has a very high alcohol taste? as I have had some wines that taste a LOT stronger then they are. I have just done a plum wine 25/09/2022 started at 1.098 after 8 days was at 1.000 left it another 7 days and it was 0.988. tasted a little sweet and I would say it tasted was about 17% ABV. racked it on the 24/10/2022 (forgot about it) ABV still tasted really high so check the gravity and check what the ABV should be 12.86% bottled it on the 12/11/2022 and it tasted dry and very strong BUT I could drink it now can't wait to taste it in 6 months took 5 bottles to my friend and told him not to give them to me until Christmas next year I have a feeling this is going to be WoW. last time I felt this sure about a wine was about 18 years ago with a blackberry wine, not done blackberry since then as blackberries in Finland cost SILLY money

If i didnt took the first measurements, is there any way to calculate the abv?

Brand-new to this and I sorta jumped the gun and did not take an original gravity. So how would I get an idea of abv?

Do you have a video on how to determine the final gravity?

Thinking of trying a 1 gallon cyser with apple juice and tart cherry juice? Thinking maybe 3 to 1 ratio apple to cherry. With 3 pounds of honey. Now I have a obsession with blueberries lol and the taste didn't come through In my blueberry orange mead sooo thinking of using blueberries in this also. Should I do them in secondary or primary? What's everyone's thoughts on this combination? Also is 3 pounds of honey a bit much with the juice?

Does this formula fits to all kind of yeast? On my wine yeast is written 16.8g sugar=1%ABV

🍻

I'm new to brewing yesterday I started day 1 of the formation process of my strawberry wine the 1st number was .0089, 2blnd reading was ,0039(blue) and the 3rd reading was .0016(green/table wine) what does this mean?

Have you tried using a refractometer? Seems like it might be quite a bit quicker and easier when calculating sugar content.

I'm a bit confused, just help me understand a little better. Why do we you use ×135 what is it for and how did you get the number 135?

I step feed. Any advise on calculating?

hello there, im puzzled. so i made cider the OG was 1.066 with FG 0.997 so subtracted that and that leaves 0.069 multiplied that by 135 and that gives me a negative number of -133.529 have i discovered the antidote to alcohol? where am i going wrong?

Not a bad idea to update these videos.... hello algorithm

Hey I have a yeast that says it will get to 20%ABV I'm getting ready to start it on the 7th but I'm trying to figure out what my starting gravity should be to actually get 20%ABV without it going completely dry any info would be helpful thank you

I am a noob at this and I think I screwed up on the sugar. I was making 1 gal. of your sweet red wine and I mistakenly only added 1-1/2 cups of sugar instead of 2-1/2 c. I used Lalvin EC1118 yeast. OG was 1.086 and very actively fermentation started w/in 24 hrs. By day 3 all apparent fermentation seemed to stop. I took another reading and SG was 1.000. Should I wait (3 days is surely way to short a time to ferment), add more sugar? Is it a stall or just done because I didn’t add enough sugar?

Could you please think about doing a video on diluting our brew?

Is it multipied by 135 or 131.25? I'm confused again.

Pen paper, I am ready :)

Is it possible to to work out the ABV if you forget to do your OG :(

I'm guessing that depends on how much you're drinking how quickly. But I believe they refer to it as a blood alcohol level not alcohol by volume I think. Lol 😂😝

Brian, while my wife and I were sitting in the living room watching TV, she put her drink down next to me (Mike's hard black cherry lemonade), and she said "can you make this? It's my favorite drink, I go through a lot of it, and we have the equipment..." Well, I can make wine, mead and cider, but a Mike's hard lemonade (black cherry), I have no idea. What say you?

So what do you do what your starting abv is off the charts?

@City Steading Brews So... I went rogue. Think I watched all the videos, did my thing. Went with EC118, it's insane... Will not stop eating all my strawberries and honey! So, I ended up step feeding instead of back sweetening because that yeast is HUNGRY. My question is: If I take gravity readings before and after each feeding, (within moments of each other), do I add the difference to my starting gravity when calculating ABV? OG 1.133 7 day 1.034 7 day fed to 1.046 14 day 1.011 14 day fed to 1.026 21 day 1.012... I'm thinking that it's consumed 0.146 which, when multiplied by 135 gives me approximately 19.16% ABV. I understand that yeast can't read. The question is, do I have super yeast or lousy math? Side notes, eghads, this is potent, I keep adding homemade strawberry juice concentrate but my beastly yeasties are chewing it up. I'm assuming that I'll have to flavor to taste and pasturize immediately. I learned my lesson and have the D47 on the way...lol Thank you both for your presence and guidance, this has been a lifelong dream and the two of you gave me the confidence to finally get to it!

OG was 1.9 then FG is1.22 that gives me 91.8 don't think that's right ?

Say your original gravity was 1.130 would you want it to go down close to 1.000 for final gravity

So just for clarity sake. If og is 1.100 and fg is 1.000 the difference is 0.100. Multiply that by 135 and you get 13.5% abv?

My SG Worth 1.060 and 1.034 ?? Brix: 15-8

Making juicy ipa,. first reading was 20 after a week it was 50 i think both were on the top of the hydrometer so 1.020 and 1.050 i did the math its 2700 abv is that good? says its done after two weeks so a week left