Preparing for Homebrewing Part 2

To follow on from where I left off once you have balanced your reaction which is easily done using a home brew kit for guidance which are acquired with minimal expense and effort. The next step after this is measuring you alcohol content and if the fermentation process has concluded you can measure the alcohol content. The content is measured taking a reading before the fermentation process and after the fermentation process and using a Hydrometer which measures Specific gravity from which you can work out your alcohol content. To do this take the specific gravity reading from your hydrometer  after the fermentation process and before the fermentation process and subtract them from each other , this will give you a specific gravity reading which on you hydrometer will give you an approximate reading of the " Potential Alcohol" in your crafted home brew.

Don't get too bogged down in this "Specific Gravity" it sounds like something from a outer space but its just a scale of measurement. The next thing will be when you're happy with your home brew and excited to sample maybe one or two of your crafted beverages , you will want to bottle it.

The next part is open to interpretation you can wait until your home brew is finished fermenting or not before bottling, but if choosing the latter do give caution, using only locking cap bottles, as normal pressed tin caps wont take the pressure of the CO2 being produced from the stagnating reaction, This can prove to be comical to watch as in your lovely fridge there's now 24 bottles of home brew exploding one by one. Comical only if its not your home brew / fridge !

In Part three I will provide a fail safe technique on how to avoid such a mess !

Thanks for Reading !