Hydrometer

[clay5769]

Hi just got a Hydrometer trying to figure out the scale.
Here's a couple pictures if I'm right it says about 1 % alcohol? I didn't do a before fermentation check . I just got Hydrometer today

This is after 2 weeks fermentation does that mean because it's less than 2% alcohol its not safe?

Everything I've been reading and being told it should be 2% and up

I just bottled it 1 gallon of twisted monk


Thanks

[John Sand]

You need before and after readings to determine abv. The number you're reading is potential alcohol.
You can estimate your original gravity or find it listed if you used a recipe kit.

[BlackDuck]

I will also add that when you take your readings, make sure it is floating freely in the tube and not touching the sides.

And there are multiple scales on the hydrometer. You want to use the one that is for specific gravity. It looks like the picture below. You’ll take a reading prior to adding yeast and record that number. An example would be 1.052. Then take a reading when it done fermenting and record that number. An example would be 1.011. Then find an online calculator to figure your percentage of alcohol. You’ll enter both of these numbers and the calculator will give you the alcohol percentage.




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[clay5769]

Thanks.. I don't really care the alcohol, % my main concern is there's enough in it to kill any nasty stuff so not get sick.

I will make sure Hydrometer is centered next time.

[mashani]

Thanks.. I don't really care the alcohol, % my main concern is there's enough in it to kill any nasty stuff so not get sick.

I will make sure Hydrometer is centered next time.

You will always make something around at least ~4% beer with those kits, unless you go nuts and remove ingredients and start throwing random stuff in instead to replace them and the stuff you throw in isn't fermentable.

So the getting sick concept is not something you should worry about.

Its more about knowledge... knowing when it's really done both in theory (expected final gravity), and in reality (if it's really done then the reading would be the same 3 days apart, if the number keeps getting lower then it's still fermenting).

[clay5769]

Perfect thanks that's always my concern I've had food poisoning before... not fun at all.

[mashani]

Perfect thanks that's always my concern I've had food poisoning before... not fun at all.

The reason holy roman empire monks made, drank, and distributed to the "masses" as such, vast quantities of low abv beer (at one point monks were allowed 11 liters a day!), and then later folks like Elizabethan householders made 50+ gallons of low abv beer every week, and the entire household drank it, instead of water, is simply because ale didn't make them sick. They could start with badly infested water, and by the time it was done, it was magically safe to drink. Same applies to your beverages, as long as you don't do something silly.

[clay5769]

Great... I followed all directions on all my brews. The only thing I did in any brews different was I took out a can of tart cherries in a cider kit and put in its place a can of strawberry pie filling. Still followed everything in directions..