Alcoholmeter scale for SG?

[Yane]

Alcoholmeter for SG
Hi, I'm new in home brewing and I have a small problem. I can't find (where I live) a hydrometer but I have at home an Alcoholmeter. My question is, can I use an Alcoholmeter scale and some coefficient to calculate specific gravity or Plato degrees?
Thank you

 

[smitty2324]

Having never heard of an alcoholmeter, I Googled it and the first three links that came up were for hydrometers, so assuming that your alcoholmeter is the same as a hydrometer you would follow these instructions:

http://www.homebrewing.org/How-to-Read-a-Hydrometer_ep_46-1.html

 

[Yane]

It is an Alcoholometer,
I'm from Macedonia (southeast Europa) and here we have a very long tradition of making home vine and home bendy (it is called Rakija in the Balkan area) and we use Alcoholometer to measure % of alcohol in it (% apv). So I have two of those at home and I was wondering can I use them to calculate OG of wort

 

[o2nut]

That is really cool, my wife lived in Macedonia for a year. Anyway I don't think it would work. I think your alcohol meter would not be calibrated for high SG. Even hydrometers are calibrated for different SG. But I don't know for sure since I have never seen an alcohol meter in person yet from what I saw on the web. Maybe a picture or give us the scale on the meter would help.

 

[TBrosBrewing]

From my understanding, in general no. Alcohol meters are only accurate in solutions that are only water and alcohol, IE post distillation. It still serves the same function as a hydrometer, but you would more than likely have to convert the measurements on it into a usable SG, Balling, or Plato measurement.

 

[Yane]

Yes, I'm thinking the same, so what I'm searching is the coefficient for converting what is measured on the alcohol scale in to SG or Plato

p.s. I'll try to put picture of my Alcoholometer

 

[IrregularPulse]

Are you able to order a hydrometer online?

 

[camiller]

A Alcoholmeter is also known as a proof & traille hydrometer. Typically the scale on a Alcoholmeter is for gravities below 1.000. I'm not sure you could get an accurate reading for SG since it would likely be way off the scale.

 

[david_42]

Since it is designed to work with wine (water/alcohol), not beer (water/alcohol/unfermented sugars), I rather doubt it. Can it give you a good reading for sweet wines?

 

[bad coffee]

Can you find a refractometer? They're a bit more expensive than a hydrometer, but they're easier to use.

B