Hydrometer reading confusion

[Troy Easter]

I have not understood hydrometer readings correctly. I made my second 1 gallon batch of vanilla mead. 3 1/2 lbs of honey. Added the yeast.. and nutrient and energizer... it took off well. And after a month it had stopped fermenting. I racked it to another 1 gallon glass carboy. It tastes wonderful. I did a reading with my hydrometer and it was at 1.00. Thing is... I never took a first reading. Now.. from what I understand from reading on this forum. Your first reading is the potential alcohol level.?? Then the last reading tells you when it has completed fermenting?? I'm in need of serious help in understanding ... thanks for your time and effort.

 

[buzzerj]

To calculate the Alcohol by Volume (ABV) you need to take a hydrometer reading (specific gravity) of the original must and the finishing gravity of the final mead before stabilizing the mead and adding any sugars if you want to backsweeten the mead. You use the difference between the original gravity and final gravity to calculate the ABV using the formula - ABV = 131.25 (Original Gravity reading - Final Gravity reading).

 

[Maylar]

I have not understood hydrometer readings correctly. I made my second 1 gallon batch of vanilla mead. 3 1/2 lbs of honey. Added the yeast.. and nutrient and energizer... it took off well. And after a month it had stopped fermenting. I racked it to another 1 gallon glass carboy. It tastes wonderful. I did a reading with my hydrometer and it was at 1.00. Thing is... I never took a first reading. Now.. from what I understand from reading on this forum. Your first reading is the potential alcohol level.?? Then the last reading tells you when it has completed fermenting?? I'm in need of serious help in understanding ... thanks for your time and effort.

Your understanding is correct. Without an original gravity (OG) reading you can't tell what the alcohol potential was. You can, however estimate that by the amount of honey used. 3.5 lbs in a gallon would be approx. 1.122 with a potential for about 16%. That's based on honey having .035 per pound per gallon, which is an average and can vary with different honeys.

And BTW we use 3 digits for hydrometer readings - 1.00 is different than 1.000. You need to interpolate between the lines.

 

[Troy Easter]

I thank you for your info. It will take some time to wrap my head around it. I'll have to read more on it and search Google. My 2nd batch of MEAD smells and tastes way better than the first. Even at such a young age of 1 month.

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Troy Easter - and welcome. Smell and taste are affected by stresses you put on the yeast. That can be caused by temperature, nutrient count, yeast cell count and a host of other factors. You might want to read up on mead making in books written by recognized mead makers who use trade publishers (so they are checked for accuracy and the like). Schramm is one and Piatz is another. Much on the web is self-published arrant garbage.

 

[Troy Easter]

I have the complete guide to mead making by Steve piatz. Just bought it today from google.

 

[bernardsmith]

The book is very good. You may have all kinds of questions when you try to apply his protocol, and that is OK. Just ask (you are likely to get about a dozen different answers - and that is OK too but what you always want is the rationale behind the answer. Understanding the principles that generate the problems will help you understand better the possible solutions and what counts as good practice.