28.5 Brix Pinot

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

zadvocate

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2015
Messages
392
Reaction score
72
I'm cold soaking my pinot no war and I took multiple measurements. Twice with a refractometer the Brix came in at 26 and 25. I also measured with my hydrometer and it came in at 28 each time. Temperature of the must is 50°. I'm not doing anything yet but wondering which reading would seem the most reliable? Even adjusting the hydrometer for temperature it only goes down a little bit. The calibration temperature was 60°. If it's 28 I have to adjust it down I think that's too high.
 
I just calibrated my hydrometer and it seems to be reading one bar high i.e. .02 on the SG scale. So Adjusting the reading for that and the temperature in the house it comes out almost exactly 25.
 
They are cold soaking and I agree that number seems really high I calibrated my hydrometer in distilled water and noted that it was off by about .002 on the high side. I just remeasured and the hydrometer reads 1.118. If I adjust that for temperature and the above calibration it comes down to around 1.116. This is about 27 brix I also checked with the refractometer and it was at 26 bricks so close to the same number. Yes they have been crushed and destemmed. The grapes are from 10 Brinks in suisun California. I'm going to stop the cold sub tomorrow warm them up but I'm wondering if I should add any acidulated water?
 
I was thinking I would dilute based upon lowering it 2 brix to be safe. Do you think that is too much?
I stopped the cold soak this morning and will recheck my readings tonight after work. I think by them the must will have warmed up a bit.
 
I was thinking I would dilute based upon lowering it 2 brix to be safe. Do you think that is too much?

I think it depends. Were the grapes ripe, or just high in sugar? Were there a lot of raisins? I've gone 28 to 26, but there was a lot of dehydration in the grapes, so I was just putting the water back into them.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top