hydrometer problems

[Deafmeadmaker]

Filling a few holes in my inventory and made a pineapple ginger mead. OG: 1.20 Everything went perfectly right up to bottling. When I went to do a FG to determine ABV, I got 1.22
I thought, that can't be right. Went over my notes, cleaned my glasses did the reading again, same result. My local HBS was out of vinometers and refractors but they did have a hydrometer with a higher scale meant for measuring meads. Problem is there were no instructions and what writing there was on the label was in French. I figured out the sugar scale (1124) Potential ABV was listed as 3, kilograms of honey per hectalitre: 7
The name of the company appears to be Alla. There is a tiny logo base of the scale. Does anyone have experience using this type of hydrometer?
I want to put something on the label other than 'My best guess is...'

 

[bernardsmith]

Sorry, I am not at all familiar with the hydrometer you refer to. But if you could provide a close up photo of your hydrometer submerged in the mead we can perhaps confirm the reading*. Or if you could provide the list of ingredients and the volume I am sure that many folk here can give you a best estimate of your starting gravity. I say that because 1.200 (Hydrometer readings are typically to three places after the point) seems incredibly high. My guess is that very few strains of yeast could deal with that concentration of sugar: it causes what is called osmotic shock. A starting gravity of 1.200 means that there is the equivalent of about 5.75 lbs of sugar in every gallon. This has the potential ABV of about 26% . Most yeast (assuming that you step feed them this amount of sugar) can perhaps reach about 16-17% ABV so you are talking of a mead with so much residual sugar that it should taste so sweet it could peel the enamel from your teeth. (perhaps 2 lbs of residual sugar per gallon - and so might have a reading not of 1.220 but perhaps 1.070 - 1.080. (of course if you did not mix the honey and the pineapple sufficiently your initial reading may have been low and your final reading may be quite accurate - if the yeast have suffered from osmotic shock).
*What you might want to do is make a few test solutions of sugar water to test your hydrometer to see if the scale may have slipped. Distilled water should give a reading of 1.000. Four ounces of sugar dissolved in distilled water to make 1 qt will have a reading of 1.040. Eight ounces of sugar dissolved to make 1 qt will give you a reading of 1.080.

 

[homebrewer_99]

OG: 1.20...FG: 1.22? Are you sure it wasn't 1.022?

That would be a drop of .178 bringing it to 18.69% ABW or 23.363% ABV.

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

OG: 1.20...FG: 1.22? Are you sure it wasn't 1.022?

That would be a drop of .178 bringing it to 18.69% ABW or 23.363% ABV.

I've not discounted my eyes may be playing tricks on me or there's something I missed. I'm going to take Bernard's suggestion and get some distilled water to test out the hydrometers. I'll be adding pictures later today or tomorrow. I'm not the first brewer to be fooled by the tools on hand. This post will be more for the group at large so they can learn from my mistakes. This is how we learn folks.

 

[homebrewer_99]

I've not discounted my eyes may be playing tricks on me or there's something I missed. I'm going to take Bernard's suggestion and get some distilled water to test out the hydrometers. I'll be adding pictures later today or tomorrow. I'm not the first brewer to be fooled by the tools on hand. This post will be more for the group at large so they can learn from my mistakes. This is how we learn folks.

You got that right. LOL!

 

[kh54s10]

If you measured the mead with the same hydrometer and had not added any ingredients, one of the measurements is incorrect. Your OG can not possibly go up.

Another hydrometer at this point will only tell you what the gravity of the mead is now.

Don't know much about mead but homebrewer 99's hypothesis seems likely. Unless that is way out of range for a mead.

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

Did the distilled water test and both hydrometers tested out at 1.000
The first picture is the two hydrometers side by side. Notice the scale on the left hydrometer.

Here is the hydrometer we are all used to for measuring beer and mead.
And here's the second hydrometer.
Here is the base of the neck with what looks like a logo. I wish I had the instructions on how to use this. Measuring the sugar in a solution is useful. I already know how much honey I put into the carboy. It's that third scale that has me flummoxed.
Potential % of alcohol: 3
By Volume? By weight? Does 3 mean 3% or 30? or am I over thinking this?

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

Here are the ingredients and recipe for the pineapple ginger.
1 gallon batch
1.7 lbs or fresh pineapple
.13 oz fresh ginger
3.5 lbs. of mesquite and Texas wildflower honey.
Lavlin D 1122 yeast. Step feed and yeast nutrient
When I stirred, I got most of the chunks out of the way for the reading. I'm almost certain the OG was 1.20 on the basic hydrometer. This batch was started Jan. 20
it came clear and the fruit fell at the end of Feb. I transferred to another bucket, added potassium metabisulphite to stop the yeasties. The following week I bottled.
It's crisp, sweet and tastes like you're drinking a cake. You can taste the alcohol slightly, but I'm sure that will mellow out in the coming year. Whatever it is, it's good.
nota bene: at no time did I detect the fusal smell of strained yeast.

 

[kh54s10]

Can't tell anything from the second picture. It is not showing a SG scale. At least on the side that is showing in the picture.

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

Can't tell anything from the second picture. It is not showing a SG scale. At least on the side that is showing in the picture.

If by SG you mean sugar solution, it came up 1124. Sorry I didn't get a picture of that.

 

[bruce_the_loon]

I think you might need to clean those glasses again. That reading in picture 2 is 1.022, not 1.22. And both hydrometers are only graduated up to 1.160.

I found this link to mead hydrometers on Alla's website,http://www.allafrance.com/product/hydrometers-diverse-utilisations-1150fg000-15-qp-p-2014.html, that give some info if the unit is the right one. The first scale is SG, the second (0-50 numbers) is kg/hl of honey and the third (0-21) is probably alcohol as %Vol. So 3 would be 3% up to 21% on full scale. I don't know if the remaining sugars (if any) will affect that reading or not, the site's Technical Support section talks about pure admixtures of water and ethanol.

The other thing is that the calibration temp for this model is 15 degrees Celsius, so adjustment of the numbers is needed if comparing to the original hydrometer which might be calibrated at 20 degrees.

 

[Deafmeadmaker]

Thanks for the link. Now to take a sharpie to all those labels I made!

 

[bernardsmith]

I think you might need to clean those glasses again. That reading in picture 2 is 1.022, not 1.22. And both hydrometers are only graduated up to 1.160.

I found this link to mead hydrometers on Alla's website,http://www.allafrance.com/product/hydrometers-diverse-utilisations-1150fg000-15-qp-p-2014.html, that give some info if the unit is the right one. The first scale is SG, the second (0-50 numbers) is kg/hl of honey and the third (0-21) is probably alcohol as %Vol. So 3 would be 3% up to 21% on full scale. I don't know if the remaining sugars (if any) will affect that reading or not, the site's Technical Support section talks about pure admixtures of water and ethanol.

The other thing is that the calibration temp for this model is 15 degrees Celsius, so adjustment of the numbers is needed if comparing to the original hydrometer which might be calibrated at 20 degrees.

Most hydrometers have three scales. One is specific gravity, the second is Brix (or balling) and that measures the amount of sugar present (it usually works out to 1/4 of the gravity - so a solution with a gravity reading of 1.080 will have a Brix of about 20 (so 3 might be the Brix which would be equivalent to an SG of about 1.012) . The third scale they have is potential ABV but this only works before you pitch the yeast. After fermentation begins the gravity drops - so that is still accurate; the Brix drops - so that reading will still be accurate but the potential ABV does NOT change so any change in that reading means that the reading is NOT accurate.