First Attempt At Wine - Unsure of Starting SG

[Adam13638]

I started my first attempt at making wine using a home brew kit and one of the juice concentrate kits (cabernet sauvignon in this case). The directions on the kit are really not well written, and it seems like I made a mistake in reading the starting specific gravity. The directions merely say to use the hydrometer to read the SG, and write that value down on the instruction sheet in a small box. It doesn't give targets, or anything regarding what the initial reading should be, just read it and write it down.

The problem is my initial reading I got was .92. I've already added the yeast, and it currently appears to be fermenting pretty well (I'm getting an air bubble popping in the air lock every 2 seconds). It wasn't until later that I started reading online that the SG should have been quite a bit higher. Now it's too late to get a new reading, I imagine. I'm not 100% sure where I went wrong. I would think a home brew kit would have been dialed in to an acceptable sugar level (there's no directions in the kit regarding adding sugar if the level is too low, so it doesn't appear the manufacturer expects the mix to need tweaking). My best guess is I didn't mix it well enough and I had more water than juice up top, or I just didn't get all the air off the hydrometer when I spun it.

Anyway, at this point, is there some way to salvage this? I don't know if I can just let it go until it stops breathing, or can I let it go until it hits a certain SG and just know for certain that there's enough alcohol (even if it's a little higher than intended)?

 

[mainshipfred]

You're fine Adam. You can always call the manufacturer, give them the batch number on the box and they will be able to tel you the initial SG. you just had a bad reading. Please keep in mind readings are 3 decimals. It's possible you could have been at 1.092 which is where you want to be.

 

[salcoco]

I would suggest Googling or you Tube how to read a hydrometer. I believe as above to was probably 1.092. to practice put differnet sugar amounts in water and view the different measurements on the hydrometer.

 

[Scooter68]

I would suggest Googling or you Tube how to read a hydrometer. I believe as above to was probably 1.092. to practice put differnet sugar amounts in water and view the different measurements on the hydrometer.

Start with distilled or filtered water and confirm the hydrometer is reading correctly, then start with additions of sugar to practice reading.

 

[sour_grapes]

Here is a good video to give a visual:

 

[Adam13638]

Thank you all for the comments. Fred was correct. I appear to have had a good number, and just misread it. The 92 I was looking at was in between the 1.000 marks and 1.100 marks, and I just didn't see them.