Calculating calories in home brew

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Ange_
Ange_ Posts: 324 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I make my own cider and ginger beer but have no idea how I should be calculating the calorie content of them. Should I just be adding up the original ingredients or does the fermentation process which converts the sugars to alcohol change it - I of course know alcohol has calories too...

Anyone know for sure?

Replies

  • Pandorian
    Pandorian Posts: 2,055 MFP Moderator
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    enter it in the recipe counter, compare the results to a bottles nutritional info from a major brewer, won't be exact perhaps but you'll have a per bottle comparison to work from
  • JacksMom12
    JacksMom12 Posts: 1,044 Member
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    when I drink homebrews, I just find something comparable and then use that. I have a good friend who brews IPA's, different wheat bears, stouts, porters, etc. So, say I drink a homebrew vanilla porter.. I'll log it as a breckenridge vanilla porter because they taste similar and are probably pretty similar in calories. That's what works for me, but maybe that isn't meticulous enough for some.
  • ShannonMpls
    ShannonMpls Posts: 1,936 Member
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    We brew beers, and I just find a comparable one in the database - a saison for a saison, EPA for an EPA, etc.
  • infamousmk
    infamousmk Posts: 6,033 Member
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    Ditto everyone else - I just log it as a similar national brand.
  • wbgolden
    wbgolden Posts: 2,071 Member
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    There's a program called BeerSmith that takes all your ingredients and give you a calorie per pint count. You have to make sure your efficiency is pretty close to correct :)
  • PB67
    PB67 Posts: 376
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    I make my own cider and ginger beer but have no idea how I should be calculating the calorie content of them. Should I just be adding up the original ingredients or does the fermentation process which converts the sugars to alcohol change it - I of course know alcohol has calories too...

    Anyone know for sure?

    If you're trying to lose weight, you shouldn't be drinking it at all. If you send me a PM, I'll give you my address so you can send all that tempting stuff to me ;)
  • tinamina78
    tinamina78 Posts: 241 Member
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    I make my own cider and ginger beer but have no idea how I should be calculating the calorie content of them. Should I just be adding up the original ingredients or does the fermentation process which converts the sugars to alcohol change it - I of course know alcohol has calories too...

    Anyone know for sure?

    If you're trying to lose weight, you shouldn't be drinking it at all. If you send me a PM, I'll give you my address so you can send all that tempting stuff to me ;)

    Who says you can't drink some tasty adult beverages while being healthy and losing weight?? ;)
  • Maple669
    Maple669 Posts: 30
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    I believe you calculate calories by measuring the specific gravity of your brew prior to fermentation and then after, then comparing the two...this is also how you calculate the alcohol percentage...they sell this little test tube thing at most all brew shops for only like $10 or so
  • PB67
    PB67 Posts: 376
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    I make my own cider and ginger beer but have no idea how I should be calculating the calorie content of them. Should I just be adding up the original ingredients or does the fermentation process which converts the sugars to alcohol change it - I of course know alcohol has calories too...

    Anyone know for sure?

    If you're trying to lose weight, you shouldn't be drinking it at all. If you send me a PM, I'll give you my address so you can send all that tempting stuff to me ;)

    Who says you can't drink some tasty adult beverages while being healthy and losing weight?? ;)


    I think your sarcasm meter is broken.
  • Maple669
    Maple669 Posts: 30
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    hydrometer it's called i believe
  • Ange_
    Ange_ Posts: 324 Member
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    yes i have one one them (a hydrometer). I assumed there would be some way of calculating it using that. I don't know what the actual maths would be though.
  • Ange_
    Ange_ Posts: 324 Member
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    I just looked up beer smith. it cost. So i'm not doing that.

    but i found this if anyone is interested:

    http://www.mrgoodbeer.com/carb-cal.shtml

    looks like it will do the maths for me with my hydrometer.Also does the alcohol content maths too which i always used to do by hand. So that's pretty neat.
  • Selva_Jim
    Selva_Jim Posts: 3
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    In general, calories cannot be created or destroyed in foods. So if you add all the caloric values for the ingredients, then divide it out by the number of servings, you can figure on being fairly close to the correct information per serving, in terms of calories. However, if you are performing any filtration or distillation, all bets are off, as you wouldn't be able to know which calories are left behind and which calories stay in what you ultimately drink.
  • Maple669
    Maple669 Posts: 30
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    I just looked up beer smith. it cost. So i'm not doing that.

    but i found this if anyone is interested:

    http://www.mrgoodbeer.com/carb-cal.shtml

    looks like it will do the maths for me with my hydrometer.Also does the alcohol content maths too which i always used to do by hand. So that's pretty neat.

    bingo!!!

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