Ok, so for kicks and giggles, I brewed (if you can call it that) a hard apple cider. Basically took five gallons of raw apple cider got it to about 180, added 4 pounds of honey, and stirred like crazy to get all the honey disolved.
Cooled, and transferred to a bucket. (OG was 1.082) Added two packs of rehyrdated champagne yeast.
Three weeks later and the FG is 1.000. Obviously very dry. But, I like it. It's carbonating now.
Now, doing the math on the gravities. (on iPhone app called "brewmath") that takes me to 11%abv. I used a couple online calculators and got from 10.6% to 11.3%.
Does a brewing hydrometer work for apple cider?