# Help with ABV - check my math



## Sammyk (Dec 10, 2011)

Directions for original Skeeter Pee

Not quite 1 gallon more then 3/4 though because I wanted to leave room for the Bacardi's because I was not sure how much I would need to add.

Starting SG 1.070
Fermented to .99

Added 2 cans of Bicardi Strawberry Daiquiri
1/2 cup of sugar
Added sugar to 1.010

Does this come out to .133 ABV?

I will probably top both 1/2 gallon carboys with white wine. Will this change the ABV

Lemon flavor with a little strawberry taste

TIA


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## arcticsid (Dec 10, 2011)

I assume it wasn't fermenting if you got it down to .99 when you added this stuff.

Having said that, all you did was add an "inert substances" to your wine if it was no longer fermenting. 

If you add Bacardi itself you could bring up the abv, lol!

It may have been better for you to add the bacardi mix and the additional sugar part way through.

There have been some discussions in here before about these Bacardi mixes and if I remeber correcly they have a ton of preservatives in them that make getting thenm to ferment very difficult.

Is it fermenting now?


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## Julie (Dec 10, 2011)

Sammyk said:


> Directions for original Skeeter Pee
> 
> Not quite 1 gallon more then 3/4 though because I wanted to leave room for the Bacardi's because I was not sure how much I would need to add.
> 
> ...



Did you stabilize the wine before you added the strawberry daiquiri? If so, to calculate BY taking 1.070 - .990 = .08 x 131 = 10.48% ABV.

How did you come up with .133 ABV?


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## Sammyk (Dec 10, 2011)

It went through the entire process of fermenting and then stabilizing with campden, sorbate and sparkaloid.

It was .99 today before I added 2 cans of the frozen strawberry daiquiri and 1/2 cup of sugar and the ending abv was 1.010. A little more then 3/4 of a gallon (it was the last carboy racked so it was not full)

I did top of with a white wine that had an ABV of 10%

It is only for us and 1/2 gallon carboys are OK with us.


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## arcticsid (Dec 10, 2011)

I am not going to do the math for you. But it sounds as though yuou are satisfied with the result, and thats a "good thing".

Make another batch right away.

Then lets look at the ingredients you want to add and go from there.

I think it was Wade who said a while back.

You end up tasting the "essence" of the wine in the end.

So in other words, if you have a fruity tooty must to begin with, this will end up transforming into something completely different when it is all done fermenting. It will not be fruity with alcohol. Wine is like a butterfly. It should be fantastic, but it is no longer what it started out as. I know that doensn't make any sense, but sometimes neither do I! LOL

This is why we backsweeten.

You can start a pee with, or with the potential to be high abv, and then backsweeten in the end to alter the flavor to your liking.

Are you looking to get a high ABV?

Most wine yeast will top out at about 14-15%, some may be able to get higher.

What are your intentions?


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## Sammyk (Dec 10, 2011)

I did not really have any intentions except to not have a heavy lemon taste. It really does not matter what the ABV is, I was just curious is all.
And it does have a light lemon taste with hints of strawberry. Next one I will add more Bacardi Strawberry Daiquiri, maybe another can, maybe two. I did not want to run to the grocery to get more.

The one 1/2 gallon carboy I will add more sugar to as I prefer a sweeter wine. Probably should have added a full cup as that is what the recipe calls for.

The only reason I did not add the full cup of sugar to gallon was because hubby prefers a drier wine.

I did pull off a quart for the neighbor who was here at the time... She really liked it dry too.

Oh I do have 6 gallons of the 4 berry that I racked and am now clearing. I only added 2 bottles of Real Lemon to that batch.


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## arcticsid (Dec 10, 2011)

Is this your firstbatch of pee?

Follow the directions for the original recipe first. And then try to alter it.

Otherwise you are not talking about sketer pee at all, you are talking about Sammys version of a wine made with lemon juice.
Lons original recipe will work EVERY SINGLE time!

If you are going to take the time t0 make a one gallon batch, then go for it, buy a bucket and make a BATCH.

No sense to mess around.


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## Sammyk (Dec 10, 2011)

I did make a little over 5 gallons. I only kept less then one gallon on the final racking to play around with. Later I will decide how to flavor the other 4 gallons.

It was Lon's recipe and I followed it step by step.

The only difference is I did not add as much sugar and added 2 cans of strawberry daiquiri mix.


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## arcticsid (Dec 10, 2011)

Sm substituting is fine, but as long as you use a hydrometer in the begining you will know, or at least hope to go.

LOL

(sounds like something from Star Trek) LOL


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## Julie (Dec 10, 2011)

Sammyk, since you stabilized your wine, what you added after that really does not affect the alcohol and topping up with a 10% wine didn't change anything.

Your sp's ABV is 10% and I don't blame you for wanting to know. Did you understand my calculations? It is very simple, it is SG minus FG then times it by 131. Some use 133, it really makes know difference.


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## arcticsid (Dec 10, 2011)

SG(x-10)-(ABV*6){14.876}. divide this by 4 and it should get you pretty close, at least to confusion!!!! LOL


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## Sammyk (Dec 10, 2011)

Yes Julie I did understand. Thank you. I wrote down the right number on paper where I did the calculations but typed the wrong number when I looked down to see what I wrote down and put 133 here.


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## Flem (Dec 10, 2011)

Julie's calculation is right for your beginning and ending SG's but, because you diluted only 3/4 gallon of pee with two cans of the Bacardi plus the sugar addition, I believe you significantly reduced your ABV. I don't know what your new number is because you diluted it after fermentation was complete. Just my opinion. Good luck!


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## Julie (Dec 10, 2011)

Mike, I agree that she probably reduced abv I can't see that it was by that much because she topped up with a 10% abv wine so the wine should stay around 10% it initially started out as 10.48%


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## Julie (Dec 10, 2011)

Sammyk said:


> Yes Julie I did understand. Thank you. I wrote down the right number on paper where I did the calculations but typed the wrong number when I looked down to see what I wrote down and put 133 here.



Lol I have done that myself.


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## Runningwolf (Dec 10, 2011)

If you do a goggle search you'll find several free alcohol calculator downloads. They work very nice.


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