Hydrometer Wrong Reading

[Enri911]

Dear all,
Hope you are well.

I am looking some advice from you!

Unfortunately I don't have the possibility to have many equipments here were I live so when i buy the grapes I use an Electric Slow Juicer yo extract the juice that i will ferment after.

2 days ago I prepared a new batch but when i inserted the Hydrometer into the testing pipe it was below 1.00 while when I was putting it into the water it was showing 1.00. Is it normal that the grapes juice was less dense than the water? Even if the juice contains more sugar? How to understand if i need to add any extra sugar to the must? And how much?

Thank you so much!
Enrico

 

[VikeMan]

Dear all,
Hope you are well.

I am looking some advice from you!

Unfortunately I don't have the possibility to have many equipments here were I live so when i buy the grapes I use an Electric Slow Juicer yo extract the juice that i will ferment after.

2 days ago I prepared a new batch but when i inserted the Hydrometer into the testing pipe it was below 1.00 while when I was putting it into the water it was showing 1.00. Is it normal that the grapes juice was less dense than the water? Even if the juice contains more sugar? How to understand if i need to add any extra sugar to the must? And how much?

Thank you so much!
Enrico

No, wine must will never read below 1.000. If your hydrometer reads 1.000 in plain water, there was something wrong with your must reading. Try again.

 

[Enri911]

No, wine must will never read below 1.000. If your hydrometer reads 1.000 in plain water, there was something wrong with your must reading. Try again.

Thanks Vike for the answer! I tried many times and i also left the hydrometer overnight in the must trial to see if something was changing but nothing happened. It was not reaching 1.000.

Can be that the solution that i got from the juicer is more dense than the must obtained with the press? Because if it was not showing good result even with water I could think that the hydrometer itself was damaged, but since it was reading water correctly i cannot understand which is the issue.

Thanks again!

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

Can you post a pic of the improper reading?

 

[VikeMan]

Thanks Vike for the answer! I tried many times and i also left the hydrometer overnight in the must trial to see if something was changing but nothing happened. It was not reaching 1.000.

Can be that the solution that i got from the juicer is more dense than the must obtained with the press? Because if it was not showing good result even with water I could think that the hydrometer itself was damaged, but since it was reading water correctly i cannot understand which is the issue.

Sounds like you're asking if one must can be denser than another must. Of course it can. But it can't be less dense than water. Post pics of your water test and your must test.

 

[Enri911]

Hello guys!
Sorry for late reply.

Attached the pics.

Thanks!

 

[VikeMan]

Hello guys!
Sorry for late reply.

Attached the pics.

Thanks!

From your pics, I can tell you two things.
1) The must is denser than the water.
2) That's not a normal brewing hydrometer. I don't know what that scale is supposed to be, but the lower numbers should be at the top, not the bottom.

 

[IslandLizard]

2) That's not a normal brewing hydrometer.

It's a Tralle hydrometer (TR. mark under the "0" gradation). They're for measuring (high) percentage of alcohol in water, typically used in distilling.
https://www.weberscientific.com/alcohol-hydrometers-proof-and-tralle

 

[VikeMan]

It's a Tralle hydrometer (TR. mark under the "0" gradation). They're for measuring (high) percentage of alcohol in water, typically used in distilling.
https://www.weberscientific.com/alcohol-hydrometers-proof-and-tralle

Ah. I've actually seen those, but didn't recognize it.

@Enri911 that's not useful for beer/wine. You need something with a Specific Gravity and/or Plato scale.

 

[IslandLizard]

You need something with a Specific Gravity and/or Plato scale

... or Brix, or Balling.

The three scales: °Plato, °Brix, and °Balling are all very close.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_measurement#Other_density_scales
Specific Gravity (SG) is the measurement used by most homebrewers. e.g, 1.093, 1.042, 1.009, etc. So make sure your hydrometer includes a specific gravity scale.

 

[Enri911]

Ok will try to look for another one, thats why i was asking, because I couldn't figure out.

Anyway how you suggest to proceed? In the old one I did:
- put campden tablets and wait 36hours
- add 1kg sugar to the must (20ltrs)
- add 1 bag (5gr) of wine yeast
- wait until fermentation is done (no more bubble/pressure on airlock valve)
- put into another Brewing bucket avoiding bottom residues
- wait 4 weeks
- filter the wine and bottle it

At the time I didn't have any Chitosan or Kieselsol that now I have.

Thank you again!