Sampling the Must for SG

[RickD]

So I went with the Fermtech wine thief ( Fermtech Wine Thief (northernbrewer.com) ) thinking it would be good for sampling my must. What I have learned is that unless you have little to no suspended solids, this is NOT the tool for the job. Having tried it on my first batch of wine (blackberry from frozen berries), I find that the little valve on the end fouls as soon as you sink it.

Any ingenious methods out there that can make simple work of this?

 

[salcoco]

take a colander and place into the must sink it enough to get liquid thru but must is filtered. use thief to collect wine.

 

[RickD]

Thanks, salcoco. No suitable colander on hand, but a piece of sterile gauze rubber-banded over the end of my mini auto-siphon got me over the hump.

I wonder if all the Fermtech thiefs leak as badly as mine, or did I just get a lemon? The valve on the mini siphon seats much better.

 

[VinesnBines]

I bought a mini colander just for buckets. I use a small measuring cup to dip the test wine out of the colander bowl then use a hydrometer jar for testing. I learned that trick at a commercial winery. Real low tech with a regular colander and a plastic two cup pitcher to dip from a 1/2 ton T-bin.
RickD - love your profile picture.

 

[Mike Parisi]

I wonder if all the Fermtech thiefs leak as badly as mine, or did I just get a lemon? The valve on the mini siphon seats much better.

Yeah, I found that if oak chips are in the primary, I just cannot use the wine theif to get a sample. Have to rubberband a mesh bag over the tip to be able to use it.

 

[Raptor99]

I use a refractometer to monitor Brix, so I only need a few drops of must. I use a pipette to draw a sample. Simple and neat. I have a larger capacity pipette that I use for drawing samples to test pH.