Question about low read hydrometer

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Lawrence22

Lawrence22

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I have been brewing a Festival Razorback IPA. I expected the OG to be 1.050 but it fell a bit short of that at 1.047. I let it ferment for 2 weeks before hop addition as I have read on here that it usually takes longer than the instructions that came with it. Any way before adding hops it had dropped to 1.003 and I presumed it had finished fermenting. I went to bottle it today and took another reading 0.997. At this I was a bit suspicious so I tested hydrometer with water at 21C which is the same temp beer was fermented at and it is reading 0.994.
My question is does this effect the ABV calculation that the calculator gives me (6.56%) or is this figure still right?

Thanks

Lawrence
 
6.56% is correct. Brewer's Friend has a calculator that you can use. Adding 0.006 to compensate for your error still gives 6.56%. 94% attenuation from your yeast is very high. I'd expect this to be quite a dry beer.
 
The expected ABV that the kit gives should be pretty close to what you end up with within a few tenths of a %. It is easy for initial readings in kits to be of a bit if the extract hasn't been completely mixed in. That kits expected ABV should be about 5.7% if no other fermentable is added, being of by a full 1% is most likely down to an inaccurate hydrometer.
 
If its out because the paper has moved (most likely) then it depends if it moved before the OG reading, if it did then the ABV calculation will be correct but if it moved inbetween the OG & FG reading then you need to adjust the FG reading. It looks to me like the FG 1.003 is correct and the paper moved making the 0.997 wrong by 0.006 the same as the water reading is wrong, so my best guess is 1.047 and 1.003 are correct and the paper in the hydrometer moved inbetween the 1.003 and 0.997 readings but impossible to tell for sure.
 

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