First Wine / Crazy Gravity Readings

Hello All,
I have made a few batches of beer and am on my first wine. It is Vintners Reserve Kit Pinot Noir. I followed the directions as writting and took a gravity reading the night that I made it. The Hydrometer was sticking so far of the original mix that You couldn't get a reading, so I thought that maybe my hydrometer was just broken. It has been 7 days, I just Racked to secondary and the sg is .9996 already. . This is where it is supposed to be when I bottle it. Anyone have any advice, or have had this happen with sg readings or am I just being dramatic? I checked the hydrometer with tap water and it read 1.000, so I don't think it is broken any longer. Please Advise. Thanks!

EliJaunic said:

Hello All,
I have made a few batches of beer and am on my first wine. It is Vintners Reserve Kit Pinot Noir. I followed the directions as writting and took a gravity reading the night that I made it. The Hydrometer was sticking so far of the original mix that You couldn't get a reading, so I thought that maybe my hydrometer was just broken. It has been 7 days, I just Racked to secondary and the sg is .9996 already. . This is where it is supposed to be when I bottle it. Anyone have any advice, or have had this happen with sg readings or am I just being dramatic? I checked the hydrometer with tap water and it read 1.000, so I don't think it is broken any longer. Please Advise. Thanks!

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I don't think it's time to bottle it yet. I think it gets degassed first, and then the finings are added, etc. That kit doesn't have you bottle at day 7. Look at the steps, and from step 3 on. That will tell you what to do next. If you just racked to secondary, it sits there for a while (at least 10 days). Then, it's degassed, you use the finings (the clearing stuff), and it sits a couple more weeks. Then you rack to the bottling bucket. That's usually at about 4 weeks in.

One of the first wine kits I did years ago threw me for a total loop as well. I was just getting into it and had no real idea what the hydrometer measured anyway

I finally realized that after following the kit directions and adding the concentrate into the bucket I failed to mix it up. All that concentrated grape juice was at the top and gave me this wicked high hydro reading.

I wouldn't worry dude.. check it again in a few days and see if your fermentation is done and follow the directions.



I've had kits I've forgotten about and left in the secondary for 10+ months and they've turned out beautiful.

the one time I rushed the process and bottled eary it turned out like ****

You choose