1. Home
  2. Winemaking Craft Forum
  3. Confused about hydrometer

Confused about hydrometer

I've read that the hydrometer isn't much use unless you use it at the beginning and at the end of making the wine but I thought I'd test it out on some wine I already started and I'm not sure what the readings mean can anyone explain them to me please?

I've just bottled some gooseberry wine which I made from a tin of concentrate (a kit) and it had a SG of 9 (I think thats 1.009?) I'm now worried from what I've read that such a SG it might blow the corks out, is that so? It had certainly finished bubbling and was clear when I put the sugar in to make it taste nice several weeks ago.

I've got some elderflower wine which was started 2 months ago which is really clear and not bubbling and it has a SG of .990. Can anyone tell me what that means and what I should do about it?

Many thanks flowerpot

Reply to
flowerpot
Loading thread data ...

Well, yes and no as to whether it will be a problem. 1.009 indicates you have some sugar in there but you already know that. If you added sorbate you are probably ok, if not just refrigerate the wine and the corks will stay put. There are other ways to keep the wine from fermenting that sugar you added but all involve heating it to pastuerize it.

The hydrometer indicates specific gravity, fruit wines and grape wines have different amounts of dissolved solids in them which affect the readings to some minor extent. I can email some info on hydrometers if you like, I have a word doc I can send. Just email me.

Joe

Reply to
Joe Sallustio

That one should have virtually no fermentable sugar left. That much you can tell by using the hydrometer at the end. But does it have enough alcohol to keep, that is greater than 5%? You can't tell just by measuting with the hydrometer now. Unless you know how much sugar was added to begin with. A good place to quikle find out is this page from Jack Keller's website:

formatting link

Reply to
ralconte

I assume that you are referring to determining alcohol level when you refer to the hydrometer below. There are several methods of determining alcohol level but the primary one used by home winemakers is the hydrometer. But that is not the only thing it is useful for.

First it will give you a good indication of how much sugar you have in your starting wine. This is useful in predicting the potential alcohol level and in making sure that the dry wine you want to make does not turn out sweet.

Next, it can be a useful tool to determining how the wine is progressing. It can be used to determining when to go from primary to secondary and when you have a stuck ferment.

Also, it can be a good indicator of what the sugar level is when the wine is finished. This is more important to know than exactly how much alcohol you have. This will tell you whether you need to stabilize your wine to prevent wine bottle bombs.

In other words knowing the starting and ending hydrometer reading is useful in themselves and along the way, if you know the hydrometer reading at beginning and end of the fermentation, you can get a good estimate of the alcohol level.

Ray

Reply to
Ray Calvert

DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.