Did i wait too long to use the hydrometer?

[Bnew17]

Ok, so im new to winemaking. The 2 batches i made from muscadines last year i used a natural yeast and didnt even know what a hydrometer was. I had some grapes left over from last year and decided to make a few more batches. I ordered the hydrometer and the test jar glass. I used the same natural yeast recipe as it turned out really good last time. Pulled the hydrometer and test jar out only to find the test jar broken!! So i ordered another one and got the quickest shipping but it took a week to get to me. It came in the mail yesterday. By yesterday my batches have been made up for a week and are in full swing. I went ahead and got readings off of both...will these readings serve any purpose or was it too late??? I guess i should have made sure all the supplies were not broken before i got started,,,lesson learned.

 

[Gr8zins]

It's never too late to start using a hydrometer. The only info you will be missing is the starting gravity so you may not know how much alcohol was produced, but you Will know if you have consumed all the sugar and it will signal the end of secondary fermentation. There is a meter you can buy if you want to know the ABV if you really need to

 

[Elmer]

You will have no way of knowing what the SG was.
Therefore you will not be able to deduce finished and final ABV.

However if you are not concerned with any of that, then who cares.
I will get heat for it, but I have made a kit or 2 by tossing the yeast in. When the bubbling subsided racked to secondary. When the bubble were done and a month later racked, bottled and moved on with life.
(for the record I had a child born around the time and was otherwise consumed, so be gentle with the flames)

 

[Bnew17]

It's never too late to start using a hydrometer. The only info you will be missing is the starting gravity so you may not know how much alcohol was produced, but you Will know if you have consumed all the sugar and it will signal the end of secondary fermentation. There is a meter you can buy if you want to know the ABV if you really need to

I was mainly curious to know the ABV ... What is the meter i can get that would tell me this without getting my initial reading bedore fermentation???

 

[Bnew17]

The SG on one batch was 1.045 and the other was 1.062. If i did my adjustments right for the temp difference.

 

[robie]

I will get heat for it, but I have made a kit or 2 by tossing the yeast in. When the bubbling subsided racked to secondary. When the bubble were done and a month later racked, bottled and moved on with life.
(for the record I had a child born around the time and was otherwise consumed, so be gentle with the flames)

No heat here. I certainly think we should be using our hydrometers; they are especially good when one has a problem fermentation.

However, a lot of great wine was made before hydrometers were even invented. No doubt it is a great tool the wine makers of old would like to have had. Would have saved a lot of surprise re-fermentations.

 

[Elmer]

No heat here. I certainly think we should be using our hydrometers; they are especially good when one has a problem fermentation.

However, a lot of great wine was made before hydrometers were even invented. No doubt it is a great tool the wine makers of old would like to have had. Would have saved a lot of surprise re-fermentations.

When watching Game Of Thrones and all the wine they drink, my 1st thought is how did they make all that wine with out hydrometers, brew belts, K meta, sparkalloid, Welches & the Wine Making & Grape Growing Forum ????

 

[FABulousWines]

The best use of the hydrometer, IMHO, is to know when fermentation has completed. If you want to know the final ABV you can try to use a vinometer for a good estimate but you have to ferment dry for this to work.

Next time just drop the hydrometer in a drinking glass or even the primary; there is nothing special about that test jar.

 

[DoctorCAD]

When watching Game Of Thrones and all the wine they drink, my 1st thought is how did they make all that wine with out hydrometers, brew belts, K meta, sparkalloid, Welches & the Wine Making & Grape Growing Forum ????

They also died before 40....might it have been from the wretched wine they made????

 

[jamesngalveston]

Elmer, I do not think that back then they cared much, other then the wine was better then the water, even while still fermenting......
But......they had dragons then, when have dragon blood now...

 

[BernardSmith]

Elmer, I think that there is a way to measure the ABV of wine even if you don't know how much sugar was in the must at the start. I am not sure of the details and I have never tried this myself but it involves taking a known quantity of the wine (say 500 cc ) measuring the SG and then boiling it until half the volume has evaporated and then replacing this lost quantity with distilled water and then measuring the SG of this mixture when it has cooled. Since alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water and since a loss of half the volume will mean that all the alcohol has boiled off then the second SG must be greater than the first reading and the difference in SG must equal the alcohol lost to boiling. And that difference in SG (I think) can be converted to ABV.

 

[Gr8zins]

The meter to check ABV is called a vinometer. I have heard of them but no direct experience with it