Low ABV for Wine Kit

[kire]

Hello all.
Recently made an Island Mist kit and ended up with a 2.5-3% ABV rather than the expected 6%. Any ideas on what would contribute to such a major difference? We followed the instructions to a t, and topped off using wine rather than water.

 

[Wade E]

More info please. What was the starting sg and the finished sg and you cant count when you added the f-pack to raise the sweetness level if thats what you did to get this low abv. You need to use just the starting sg and the finished sg before adding all the other stuff.

 

[Dugger]

How did you do your calculations? If you used your starting SG and your finished SG after adding the f-pack, this might account for your low number. You must use the finish SG before adding for calculating % alcohol.

 

[Runningwolf]

Hey Dugger you gotta git up pretty early to sneak in before Wade!

 

[kire]

All,
Thanks for your posts thus far. Just as a FYI I was using the ABV line on my hydrometer which was displaying 2.5-3% (at bottling). As for the SG levels, I'll have to get those when i return home and will post accordingly.

Are the ABV scales on a hydrometer accurate?

 

[Wade E]

That just tells you what it can produce at the sg you are at so what you are using is inaccurate to determine abv. The proper way to do it is take the starting sg (1.070 we'll say) and then subtract the finished sg before adding any sweetening (we'll say it fermented down to .998) 1.070 - .998 = 0.072 and then multiply that by 131.4 whih gives you an abv of 9.46%

 

[cpfan]

Are the ABV scales on a hydrometer accurate?

There is no ABV scale on a hydrometer. There is a PA (Potential Alcohol) scale. This shows the amount of alcohol that would be present if the sugar in the must fermented down to sg 1.000. Most kits finish below 1.000 (ie more alcohol).

Here's an example (all sg numbers are ficticious),

If your mist kit started at 1.060, the PA scale would be reading 8%.

When it finishes fermenting, the sg would be about .994 (depending on the kit), and the PA would be -0.5% (yes a negative number). This shows that the wine fermented beyond 1.000.

Total alcohol...8.5%.

Now you add the sweetening pouch which punches the sg back up to 1.015, or a PA of 2%. However because sorbate was added before the sweetening pouch this will not ferment.

Result a sweet wine with about 8.5% alcohol.

Steve

 

[Wade E]

Nice job Steve!

 

[Dugger]

Hey Dugger you gotta git up pretty early to sneak in before Wade!

Yup - he obviously has faster two fingers than I do ( he sounds like a two finger typing kind of guy to me)!!

 

[Wade E]

You are on to me!!! Yep, 2 fat fingers that dont like to type what my mind tells them to!