As I am currently involved in personal research, I feel it best I put forth this question while still reasonably coherent. What does the term ‘High Gravity’ have to do with the brewing of lager? The beer in question has an 8.1% alcohol by volume, so I’m assuming the gravatational reference has something to do with its potency…can anyone out there enlighten me?
What it does is increase your personal gravitational attraction between your body and the Earth, and makes you much more likely to fall and fall quicker.
Seriously, I think it means that they add more barely and hops to it which increases the sugar content which the yeast eats and therefore increases the alchohol content.
As BioHazard says. Beer is commonly rated by “OG” (“Original Gravity”) which is the specific gravity - i.e density - before fermentation. A high gravity correlates with high sugar content, implying more alcohol at the finish. So basically “high gravity” is just brewing jargon for “strongly alcoholic”.
Heh. 
Close, except that hops don’t add to alchohol content. Just the barley malt (and sometimes other sugars). Hops add bitterness and flavor, but don’t ferment.
And what raygirvan said.
Bio-Ray-Ferrous…Thank you guys…I can see that there are beer enthusiasts a many on the SD…I had some sci-fi notion that it had to do with a specific elevation or condition of vacuum…The knowldge that it is specific only to the amount of grain or other natural ingrediant realitive to fermentation, furthers my appreciation of this wondeful elixer…Thanks a heap a hops…Rand
are you drinking steel reserve??
By OG ! So He’s a beer lover, too !!! … heh …
I drank some of that Steel Reserve a couple weeks ago. The only reason I bought it was because it was 99 cents for 24 ounces. Holy Christ! It tasted like I was drinking pure alcohol! Nasty!
Sure. Beer is essential in the worship of Og.
At least the way I do it.
But I think we may be straying out of GD territory here…
Er, GQ even.
As a former brewer, I recall that we would put a weighted but floating object in the stuff. It was like a thermometer which marked how deep the float sank. Gravity pulled it down, but it floated higher proportional to the density of the brew. The number was called the “specific gravity”.
Like the Dead Sea, things float higher when there is more dissolved stuff in the water.
As the yeast converted the dense sugars into less-dense alcohol, the density dropped, and the float sank lower. In this way we could predict the final alcohol content at the beginning, and measure the fermentation process as the days went by. Raygirvan is quite correct, a high gravity (high sugar) brew ultimately has more alcohol.
Yeah, that’s gotta be steel reserve.
Ich.
That thingy is called a hydrometer.
The Humungus
are you drinking steel reserve??
Yes, by cracky you got it…I also love the little historical ditty behind the label that defines the 211 reference as a medieval symbol for steel…Medieval hooch, how damn romantic can ya get!
Unfortunatly this being the following Sunday morning, any home spun hangover cures would be greatly appreciated…Pickle juice I’m aware of and believe you me, the person who this one to me just wanted to see the prismatic effect of my complexion after I guzzled down a jar of this noxious pickle placenta.
Hermann Cheruscan
I drank some of that Steel Reserve a couple weeks ago. The only reason I bought it was because it was 99 cents for 24 ounces. Holy Christ! It tasted like I was drinking pure alcohol! Nasty!
Yes, I agree that its a vintage that wouldn’t be appreciated by most discerning Beer connoisseurs …but what other beer (with a really cool lable) can have ya speaking in tounges for 3 bucks?
So we’re asked and answered here, yes?