Niagara Tradition offers an Intermediate Brewing class that's just the ticket for improving your beer. When beer ferments, the yeast converts sugar to alcohol. This density is called specific gravity. You simply take a reading before your beer starts fermenting and then after it's done. Then multiply the percent alcohol by weight by 1.25 to get the percent alcohol by volume.
Hops add bitterness, flavor and aroma to beer.
The terms IBU and HBU refer to the amount of bitterness a specific hop will add to a beer. IBU stands for International Bitterness Units and HBU stands for Homebrew Bitterness Units, and they are different terms for the same basic thing. Well, if you want to duplicate a favorite commercial brew, you may be able to look it up in a reference book that gives its IBUs. Then, you can choose hops of the correct type and bitterness for your homebrew recipe. Also, there are style guidelines for most types of beer.