a wine should start at 1.090ish and finish at 0.990ish which will give about 13% ABVonered05 wrote:hi john...that's because iv not quite learned how to read the gravity yet as im new to brewing. there are three sets of numbers on the gravity reader
and iv not been told how to take a reading.. anyhow i just looked at the large numbers and jotted them down on paper, im not in mine right now but
iv got it all down on paper and will post it later on today. on a plus note i was woke up twice last night by the noise of bubbles rising (unless it was my missus in her sleep) but i think its fine and i will add the fining's tomorrow. ill post the reading i wrote down later and see if you can make sence of it for me.. thanks fella..
OK john the hydrometer i have is the S1011 Triple Scale Hydrometer witch is color coded.crafty john wrote:a wine should start at 1.090ish and finish at 0.990ish which will give about 13% ABVonered05 wrote:hi john...that's because iv not quite learned how to read the gravity yet as im new to brewing. there are three sets of numbers on the gravity reader
and iv not been told how to take a reading.. anyhow i just looked at the large numbers and jotted them down on paper, im not in mine right now but
iv got it all down on paper and will post it later on today. on a plus note i was woke up twice last night by the noise of bubbles rising (unless it was my missus in her sleep) but i think its fine and i will add the fining's tomorrow. ill post the reading i wrote down later and see if you can make sence of it for me.. thanks fella..
hi aj.... when i did the sg it was reading 82 on the shaded blue part (large numbers)ajclarkson wrote:Not meaning to tread on johns toes here, but I was just scanning through this thread and thought I might be able to give you a quick answer on the hydrometer front, as its the same hydrometer I have!
When someone refers to a gravity reading of 1.090 for example, in terms of the large bold numbers on your scale, that'd be 90. The small markings between are .002 increments, so between 80 and 90 on your hydrometer will be 1.082, 1.084, 1.086 and 1.088.
You'd expect a wine to have a starting gravity of around 1.090 as John said, that's the bottom of the shaded blue area, so you should see that line matchup with the liquid level.
Fermentation should be complete at 0.990ish for a wine, some may not quite make it there, depends on the yeast and other factors. In any case that's the area your aiming for. (The 99 above the yellow band on the hydrometer)
It might seem confusing to say things like, that's what you're aiming for rather than, this is what it'll be. With fermentation it's best practice to allow the amount of time specified by your kit, then take a reading. Leave it another 24 hours and take another reading. If these both match then you can assume fermentation is over, if they change, give it a couple more days and repeat until you get 2 consistent readings 24 hours apart.
It's always best to do hydrometer readings ins separate trial jar, as its easier to read the levels etc rather than trying to look into the fermenter. A wine theif is an excellent piece of kit for this, just make sure it's sanitised before it goes anywhere near that fermenter!
I hope that helps with your understanding of hydrometer readings a bit, seems daunting at first but it'll quickly become second nature to you!
nice 1 aj.. i thought as much about transfareing it to a barrel then strait back to the same bucket once cleaned.. i cant see this being a problem as after 7 days in the secondary fermentation bucket i have to stir it anyway to get most of the co2 out and to let it clear before bottling.. as for my reading then it sounds like its all going smoothly after what you have told me.. it does say on the tin that the abv would be about 12% so im happy with that (well her indoors is)ajclarkson wrote:Alright,
I'm no where near as experienced with wine as I am with beer, so when it comes to timings I'm guessing a bit really. Sounds like it's coming down well at 1.060 now, but still quite a long way to go. I'd expect it to get at least as low as 1 by the end of fermentation. If it was 82 at the start, then you can expect to get something in the region of 12% ABV out of it, which sounds about right for a Chard. A start of 1.090 is probably more common with reds, as they're typically a little stronger 13-14% ish.
As for doing secondary in a pressure barrel, it *seems* like it'd be ok from my stance, but as I say I'm a beer brewer really. You could always sanitise that, siphon the wine in, clean your fermenter and siphon back into that. I'll probably get stick from people for suggesting that, as you're supposed to minimise movements to avoid introducing too much oxygen (at least in beer). But I've done similar a couple of times when I've been short on buckets and all's turned out fine!