Specific Gravity Thingie

Suggest using a long slender tube if you're fermenting on the skins. I'm always afraid the skins will "drag" the surface of the hydrometer and cause a false reading but I might be a little paranoid. Either method works fine for whites as long as you can easily read the hydrometer...

Charles

You can usually buy a tall thin cylinder for the hydrometer. My test cylinder takes just a bit less than a cup of the must. After you pour the must into the cylinder, gently add the hydrometer, spin it carefully in the middle of the liquid, and then look at where the level of the liquid hits the hydrometer. Test the must before you add the yeast to get your starting sg (specific gravity). If you making a country wine, I try to shoot for a starting sg of 1.084 - 1.092. You can tell the progress of your fermentation by the sg levels after you add your yeast. If you check it after a few days and it is about 1.020, then your wine is not quite dry yet. I your sg falls below 1.000, then your wine is dry, and ready to rack to a secondary. I've tried floating my hydrometer in the carboy to test the sg, but usually I have to take liquid out of the carboy to do this, but you really have to be careful about taking to much out or your hydrometer will touch the bottom of a 1 gallon carboy, so I quite doing that and bought the test cylinder. Hope this helps. Darlene Wisconsin

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