reading hydrometer

[kahaas56]

7th day of fermentation my kit calls for 1.010 or less before racking to carboy..

I thought my starting sg was 1.010 now i'm sure if I read it coreectly. I just took a reading the sg looks to read 1.012. I attached a jpeg with the cusor showing where the reading was at. could have sg rose? Any feed back with helpful..

 

[Julie]

going where the arrow is at would be 1.014, each one of those lines are .002

 

[Rocky]

Kevin, from the position of your cursor in the photo, I read that SG as 1.014. Also, when you say your starting SG was 1.010, do you really mean 1.100? At any rate, with an SG of 1.014, if it were I, I would rack to a carboy now.

 

[kahaas56]

Rocky I enclosed the directions in a pic. I'm reading 1.010 or less? I'm making cabernet sauv. I have it written down as 1.100 now i'm not sure if I read it correctly..

 

[botigol]

I don't want to seem too casual, but these instructions (as good as they can be) are often better taken as guidelines/suggestions. The difference of a few gravity points isn't a huge deal at this point. Some people won't rack until the SG is below 1.000, while others rack as high as 1.040. If you have time to rack this weekend, I say go for it. If not, it can wait just the same.

 

[cpfan]

I prefer to rack at 1.005 or below. When I've racked wine at around 1.012 - 1.014, it has bubbled up and out of the air lock making a mess. More of a problem with red wine than white wine, but nonetheless a mess to clean up.

Steve

 

[Rocky]

kevin, I am sure that you realize that a reading of SG 1.014 means that there is still some sugar in the wine to be fermented into alcohol. Fermentation causes the release of CO2 and therre could be a danger of "bubbling over" in the airlock. My experience is that I move my wines regularly when the SG hits at or below 1.020. To avoid the possibility of a "boil over" I fill the carboy to just below the neck and put the remanider in a small container (like a 750 or 1500 ml wine bottle) with an airlock and top off the carboy when fermentaton slows. Again, this has been my experience and yours may be different. Good luck.