abv questions....

[untothee]

This may be a really stupid question. But you never know till you ask.....

Having a beer of say 4%abv and you mix it with the same quantity of beer at 6%abv will this yield a beer of 10% abv?

Or since the 4 couldn't lower the 6 and the 6 wouln't raise the 4, you'd still have a beer with 6%abv?

....just curious.

Thanks.

[dparsons]

Since its the same quantity of both beers, its 5%. Yes you have more alcohol, but you also have more beer. You don't add concentrations, you average them.

The equation is

A1*f1 + A2*f2

where A stands for alcohol %, and f stands for the fraction in the mixture. The 1 and 2 stand for beer 1 and beer 2. Also

f1 + f2 = 1.0

In your example A1 = 6%, A2 = 4%, and f1 = f2 = 0.5 so you get 5%.

[branlovesbeer]

I can only assume that since the quantities are the same, you don't have to do any fancy math except for an average.

6+4=10
10 / 2 = 5
5% ABV

It's kind of like the word problems that we all remember from grade school.

"1 man can paint a wall 20ft by 20ft in 1 hour.
2nd man can paint the same wall in 1.25 hours.
How long would it take to paint the a wall 40ft by 40ft."

While that's not quite the same thing, it's the same general idea.

Remember the lower alcohol content is more water than alcohol, so adding it to the higher ABV beer will dilute the stronger one.

[untothee]

That's what I figured.

Exactly.

Thanks.