Alcohol (ethanol) - is a key component of beer.

As a commodity the use of alcohol and its consumption in

the form of malt-based alcoholic beverages has grown with the rise of human civilization. Brewing chemists
need to understand its properties and concentration and, for the past 180 years have had various means at
their disposal to measure its concentration in brewers fermenting wort and finished beer. As a key
parameter it is required in order to determine brewhouse efficiency, to serve regulatory purposes for
taxation and signaling beer strength to the consumer for health and dietary considerations. A brief review
of methods to determine alcohol content is presented, followed by a more in depth look at how brewers
today determine, with suitable accuracy and precision, the alcohol content of their beers. The article draws
together important definitions and equations, scattered throughout 180 or so years of brewing literature
related to this important topic.

Key words: Alcohol, Balling, Beer, Density meter, Ethanol, Original Extract, Plato, Near-Infrared, Specific
gravity, Tabarie