Difference in Brix in filtered vs unfiltered wine (coffee filter)

[Univox360]

cabernet sauvignon grapes, stirred the must and collected a uniform volume. Took one portion through a coffee filter to remove fine solids.

Measuring a specific gravity of about 1.096 in the unfiltered must.

Brix is 20 for filtered must and 21 for unfiltered. In both cases pretty different then SG.

In each case I'm doing my best to keep things at cellar temp around 60F and correcting for any differences using Ferm calc.

Is the filtered wine more accurate? I assume so, since I have removed some solids which might throw off the reading. I haven't gotten enough volume to measure SG, but that is easier to read for me and I want to check if it is also lower. takes a long while to filter.....

Thanks!

 

[winemaker81]

How are you measuring brix? Refractometer?

What are you going to do different if the brix is 20 vs 21?

 

[Univox360]

I found that I needed to blend the grapes in a blender first to get consistent results. Now everything makes sense and is reproducible. Surprised to find this to be needed because many methods don’t suggest this. All is good now PA is ~13% and TA and pH are good. Thanks

 

[Snafflebit]

So funny, I basically came up with the same findings this week. I have some high Brix grapes and the juice in the must is full of particulates. Brix is about 1 degree higher in the unfiltered juice. Accurate Brix matters to me because I am adding acid and backwatering. But, I think as the wine gets closer to finished the juice will be clearer and easier to find the true finish point with a hydrometer.