Need help with my hydrometer reading

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scullyjunior

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Hello and good day i took a reading a week ago and it was reading 1.150 and just took another reading today which was reading 1.130 here are pictures sorry i didnt get a shot of the first reading but thats where it was reading where the pen is pointing and the second picture is of todays reading thanks for any input all helps im new to this

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Wouldnt let me load two at the same time where the pen is pointing is where my first reading was 1.150

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Not sure what your question is, but that is REALLY high... What are you brewing?

Also have you calibrated your hydrometer? Put it in 60* distilled water, it should read at 1.000, any variation needs to be applied to wort reading. For example mine reads 0.996 in water so I have to add .004 to any reading I take.
 
Not sure what your question is, but that is REALLY high... What are you brewing?

Also have you calibrated your hydrometer? Put it in 60* distilled water, it should read at 1.000, any variation needs to be applied to wort reading. For example mine reads 0.996 in water so I have to add .004 to any reading I take.

Wouldn't you use 68f water?
 
It depends on what your hydrometer is calibrated for. Apparently, most are 68°-calibrated, but the one I bought from my LHBS is a 60° model.
 
Hello and good day i took a reading a week ago and it was reading 1.150 and just took another reading today which was reading 1.130 here are pictures sorry i didnt get a shot of the first reading but thats where it was reading where the pen is pointing and the second picture is of todays reading thanks for any input all helps im new to this

What are you asking?
That's an awfully high og. Was that taken just prior to pitching?
What was your recipe/volumes?
 
Yes my hydrometer is calibrated, my wine mix is sitting at about 68.9*f and my hydromter for temp corrections says at 66.6 to add 0.001 and at 72.4 to add 0.002. This has been sitting for a week and my first reading was 1.150 and a week after its reading 1.130 just would like to know what the readings mean has the wine mix got any alcohol? Is this reading good? I used a ocean spray no attatives or perservitives juice and added 2 cups of sugar and also added a good 1-1/2 cups of raisen juice that i boiled on low for about 15mins and a full package of wine yeast any thoughts or input thanks guys im new bare with me
 
Yes my hydrometer is calibrated, my wine mix is sitting at about 68.9*f and my hydromter for temp corrections says at 66.6 to add 0.001 and at 72.4 to add 0.002. This has been sitting for a week and my first reading was 1.150 and a week after its reading 1.130 just would like to know what the readings mean has the wine mix got any alcohol? Is this reading good? I used a ocean spray no attatives or perservitives juice and added 2 cups of sugar and also added a good 1-1/2 cups of raisen juice that i boiled on low for about 15mins and a full package of wine yeast any thoughts or input thanks guys im new bare with me

Use this site for alcohol calculation readings. So right now your at 2.6%.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

You didn't boil the wine yeast correct?
 
Yes my hydrometer is calibrated, my wine mix is sitting at about 68.9*f and my hydromter for temp corrections says at 66.6 to add 0.001 and at 72.4 to add 0.002. This has been sitting for a week and my first reading was 1.150 and a week after its reading 1.130 just would like to know what the readings mean has the wine mix got any alcohol? Is this reading good? I used a ocean spray no attatives or perservitives juice and added 2 cups of sugar and also added a good 1-1/2 cups of raisen juice that i boiled on low for about 15mins and a full package of wine yeast any thoughts or input thanks guys im new bare with me

I think the confusion is, you are in the beer brewing part of the site, not the wine making part. 1.150 is VERY high for a beer, but not out of line for a wine. I don't know anything about wine making, but I think if you navigate over to the wine making forums on this site, you would have more helpful responses. Good luck!
 
I think the confusion is, you are in the beer brewing part of the site, not the wine making part. 1.150 is VERY high for a beer, but not out of line for a wine. I don't know anything about wine making, but I think if you navigate over to the wine making forums on this site, you would have more helpful responses. Good luck!

No, it's way too high for a wine also. The yeast will poop out and not ferment it out, leaving a syrup-y sweet liquid with some alcohol, but it won't be something most people would think of as wine.

You probably want to dilute that with water to get it under 1.100, more like 1.090 so it can ferment. Alcohol is poisonous to yeast, and too much sugar means the yeast can't ferment it, so that's not going to work out.

Your recipe is flawed- next batch, only get the OG to 1.100, and even then it's not super easy to ferment something that high without some pampering like stirring to degas the c02, adding some nutrient, etc.
 
That OG would yield an ABV of about 15% if the yeast were capable, and adequately pitched for the job, and even then if you expect to hit the FG which will probably be as high as the OG on many beers, you are going to want to feed the yeast fermentables throughout fermentation rather than just dumping yeast into that high gravity wort......Not to mention choosing a yeast that can do it. Assuming the 1.150 reading was OG, a week into fermentation is really early for a beer of this gravity. 1.050 is a more rational gravity zone to be in than 1.150 for a normal beer.

H.W.
 
That OG would yield an ABV of about 15% if the yeast were capable, and adequately pitched for the job, and even then if you expect to hit the FG which will probably be as high as the OG on many beers, you are going to want to feed the yeast fermentables throughout fermentation rather than just dumping yeast into that high gravity wort......Not to mention choosing a yeast that can do it. Assuming the 1.150 reading was OG, a week into fermentation is really early for a beer of this gravity. 1.050 is a more rational gravity zone to be in than 1.150 for a normal beer.

H.W.

This isn't beer- it's wine.
 
So im tryigg a easy home brew wine which i seen a guy on youtube do his channel is criagtube he does alot if brewing both beer and wine. But ive started a inmate wine using ocean spray 100% juice no attitives or any of that junk then added 2 cups of sugar and a package of wine yeast as well i boiled 1-2cups of raisins and added the jucie to the mix for a added nutrient for the yeast to live on as craigtube said. So i pitched the yeast and took a hydrometer reading it was sitting at 1.150 and it has been a week so i did another reading and says its sitting at 1.130 is this good? Is this working? The wine mix is very active and moving like crazy still foaming intop has gone down but airlock is still going and things are still active in the jug but just would like to know if the reading looks right i did everything craigtube did has he has in his videos and his turned out great any help is very apprecitated thanks guys
 
Hi scullyjunior. Does the reading look right? Well the drop from 1.150 to 1.130 means that your yeast is eating the sugar and the activity means that the yeast is producing CO2 and alcohol... but a reading of 1.150 before you pitched the yeast means that you had about 4 lbs of sugar in every gallon ... and even if your yeast can survive that kind of concentration of sugar and even if they won't die of alcohol poisoning what you are doing is making a wine that will be completely unbalanced between flavor and the alcohol level in the wine - should all the sugar be converted to alcohol and CO2 your Ocean Spray wine will be close to 20% alcohol by volume (ABV)... Most people who make wine aim for about 11 -13% ABV or about 2 - 3 lbs of fermentable sugar in each gallon... When the alcohol gets much above 13 % you are dealing with rotgut (AKA rocket fuel) and any flavor is masked by the burn from the alcohol. If that is what you are looking for you may be right on target but wine is really about a balance between flavor and alcohol. The other thing is that yeast is a living organism and it needs to be able to take in nutrients through its cell walls. When the sugar concentration gets too high the density of the liquid gets too high and the liquid is too thick for it to pass through the cell walls. The yeast die. So it is very possible that you will be left with a sickly sweet concoction that has very little alcohol...
The amount of raisins you might need to add if they were added for their nutrients might be a small handful... Raisins are a concentrated sugar source...
 
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