High Alcohol % from SG/FG, why am I sober?

[JeffHool]

I was also wondering if anyone has every experienced their alcohol percentage seemingly being way off the calculations?

The Blackrock cider I brewed up recently had SG=1064 FG=1012 giving an approx. 7% alc. And yet when I drink it, I find that I can drink two (740ml) bottles and have no more effect than say drinking a stubby of heavy beer, when it should be more like drinking two bottles of wine.

The feeling of drunkenness is entirely subjective of course, but I find a commercial brew of what should be comparable alc% has more of a "kick" than this cider.

Even my previous beer brew, which should have been the equivalent of a heavy beer, did not booze me up to the same degree.

I am sure my hydrometer readings were correct, but even allowing for a large margin of error I would still be coming up with at least 6% alc or so. Any suggestions?

[Terry]

Have you corrected your hydrometer reading at the temp which you took the reading at to the temp to which it is calibrated?

I don't think this would make that much of a difference though.

What malts/sugars did you use to get an OG that high?

[JeffHool]

The recipe for the cider was a variant on "Oliver's #35" as follows:

1 can BlackRock Apple cider
1 kg Glucose
200g Lactose
200-300mls Berri apple and pear juice

Tastes great (although very flat), the pear juice adds a certain something, , but its not as boozy as I had led myself to believe.

[Guest]

G'day Jeff,

You asked if anyone elses beer feels like it has less kick.

I find this also, until I stand up. Then I realised the alcohol in homebrew hides in your feet, until you least expect it.

Then POW it hits you all at once.

[Oliver]

I find this also. Although I can drink a lot of Cooper's Pale without feeling too pissy.

Perhaps it's the reaction of the alcohol and the crap preservatives in commercial brew that makes you feel more affected than you really are?!

Oliver

[Hrundi V Bakshi]

You mean to say Mr Oliver, that the drunkenness of filtered and blended commercial beer is actually being a mild form of poisoning?

[Evo]

If you were following that recipe Jeff, and making around 20 litres, I don't think it would be coming out at 7%. It's basically a can and a kilo, which usually equates to about 5%. Unless the Blackrock Cider kit gives a higher OG than a beer kit.

Just a guess. I could be wrong. It has happened once.

...saying that, I too have experienced the unusually unintoxicating homebrew.

[rain]

No science to this at all.

It's just the excitement of trying a new home made product and NOT RELAXING to permit the alcohol to do its usual job.

I might not be right, but I'm sticking to it!

[NRB]

I'm with Evo on this one. There's no way you'd get 1064 with a kit and kilo. I'd say the sample you took for your test wasn't the same as that of the rest of the fermenter - it's often due to incomplete mixing of the ingredients.

[grabman]

Sometime if you collect first drop from tap you get a "sugar" build up where it has collected in sediment trap. I always let first 50ml go to clear this build up!

[Tony]

I just had the same problems on my last batch (Cooper's Lager w/BE1). Initial reading of 1.050, but didn't think about it until later, when I realised I must have had high fermentables concentration sitting in the sediment reducer. Interesting enough though, it stopped fermenting at 1.017 (stable over 48h, at about 24-25C), which gives it 4.9% - about what I'd expect. I'm a little perplexed, given that these are temperature-corrected readings, and I've tested the hydrometer in plain water - 1.000.

Ah well - I'll taste it a week and a half and see how it is.

Regards,

Tony

[JeffHool]

Sometime if you collect first drop from tap you get a "sugar" build up where it has collected in sediment trap. I always let first 50ml go to clear this build up!

I think this must be the explanation. I thought the SG might have been so high simply because it was a cider, and due to the extra juice I added.

If I recall it was the first drop out of the tap that went into the gravity reading.

Oh well.... maybe I'll use 3kg dextrose next Cider!

[Clintsc9]

When mixing a kit+kilo brew I have taken a reading from drawing off a glass from the tap and testing that, then dropping the hydrometer in the top of the mix. Sometimes the variation can be as much as 10. So I take that as a sign to stir it up a bit more.

I also tend to agree that alcohol+preservatives in commercial beer affect us more than the alcohol alone in our brews.

Anyone from Qld remember when Bernie Power started out on his own? I could drink that stuff full strength till the cows came home and not feel bad at all. As soon as CUB took over it went the way of normal commercial brews.

[pelican]

how important is it too stir brew thoroughly before letting brew to get going wouldent yeast do there job anyway

[Dogger Dan]

Pelican,

I have found that it isn't that imprtant. The stirring allows you to incorporate the oxygen required to get the yeast through its lag phase. The sugars will eventually disperse to be uniform (diffusion)

Dogger

[mordy43]

Maybe your just a pisshead like the reast of us.

[Clintsc9]

The stirring is only to get a uniform mixture so an accurate SG can be read, given I was getting two different readings top and bottom.