12/23/2023 0 Comments Hydrometer fruitjuiceYou then take the 1 and subtract it from the 12, giving you a total of 11 percent alcohol. When the fermentation is complete, you take another reading with the hydrometer that indicates a Potential Alcohol of 1 percent. You take a beginning reading of 12 percent on the Potential Alcohol scale of your hydrometer. Typical Example of Hydrometer Useįor example, lets say you have 5 gallons of freshly pressed grape juice. To find out what the actual alcohol percentage of a finished wine is, you would subtract the ending fermentation reading from the beginning fermentation reading. What this means is that as the sugars in the juice are turned into alcohol the potential for more alcohol is reduced. What this means is that if you were somehow able to get this liquid to ferment all of the sugars it contained into alcohol, the result would be a liquid with 9% alcohol by volume.Īs the wine ferments you will see the Potential Alcohol reading becoming lower and lower. If you put your thumbnail at the 1.068 mark mentioned above and roll the hydrometer around to the Potential Alcohol scale you will see it matches a reading of 9%. Learning About the Potential Alcohol Scale This is the point on the hydrometer that represents 1.068. In between the 60 and 70 you will see several tick marks. You will find this on the Specific Gravity scale by going down from the 1.000 to the 60. This is because the liquid is now heavier than water which in turn increases the buoyancy of that liquid.įor example, it you completely dissolve 2 pounds of cane sugar into 1 gallon of water, you will have a Specific Gravity reading of 1.068. When you take a reading in fruit juice or water that has had sugars added to it, the hydrometer will float higher than before. So, if the water is warmer or cooler, the reading may be off just a hair. Most hydrometers are calibrated to be most accurate at 60 degrees Fahrenheit. Just for fun, if you float the wine hydrometer in water and read the Specific Gravity scale, the surface of the liquid would cut across the hydrometer at the 1.000 mark, towards the top of the scale. Learning About the Specific Gravity Scale The "Potential Alcohol" scale is used to easily determine how much alcohol was made or can be made. It is simply a scale based on the weight of water. Specific Gravity is referred to by most wine making books and recipes. or SP GR) and the "Potential Alcohol" scale. Typically, there are two scales on the hydrometer that you are concerned with: the "Specific Gravity" scale (normally labeled as S.G. Once the wine hydrometer is floating, you take the actual reading by seeing where the surface of the liquid crosses the scale on the hydrometer. Whether it is floating in the plastic tube it came in, in a hydrometer test jar you purchased, or floating in the entire batch makes no difference, as long as it is floating you will be able to take a reading. To take a reading with the wine hydrometer it is required that you get the hydrometer to float in the juice to be tested. Secondly, it can tell you what the alcohol percentage of your finished product is by taking a reading before fermentation and one after fermentation and comparing the two. First, it allows you to track the progress of your fermentation by taking readings throughout the fermentation. What the hydrometer can do for you is two-fold. I will attempt to clear up some of the confusion here. Let's face it, unless you've used a hydrometer before it is somewhat of a foreign concept. From time to time we receive calls regarding the use of the wine making hydrometer: about how a reading is actually taken what the readings actually mean and so on.
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