Hydrometers - The One "Specific" Wine making Equipment Item
Hydrometers - The One "Specific" Wine making Equipment Item
Starting your first batch of home made wine? Great! Go for it! But you must first understand that there is important information you must have when attempting your first batch. Before adding yeast, you simply MUST know what the potential alcohol is and what the specific gravity of the juice is. Many inexperienced newbies often get this ratio wrong and end up with what essentially ends up being home made grape juice as opposed to a fine wine.
To measure this, you will need a hydrometer. With a hydrometer, you can measure the weight of the water relative to water. Basically - you can tell if your wine juice is equal to the weight of water or lighter or heavier.
There are many places to purchase a good hydrometer. There are great online shops as well as good old fashion brick and mortar spots that sell them. These hydrometers come with basic instructions, but trust someone who knows, you're going to want more detailed hands on training.
The initial hydrometer reading will usually be around 1.1. Although this reading can differ for different wine types, we'll stick with the hypothetical 1.1 for now. This reading lets you know that you have sugar dissolved in your juice and that it weighs more than water because sugar increases the specific gravity of a liquid. This gives you an excellent prediction of what your specific gravity (or S.G.) will be after the fermentation process is complete. Your S.G should end up being LESS THAN 1.00 because water weighs MORE THAN alcohol.
So before you attempt to make wine at home, I hope you take what I've said here to heart. These are important factors to be aware of when first experimenting. I remember waiting with baited breath for my first batch of home made wine to be ready. All my fiends and family were so excited and impressed that I could accomplish such a feat. It was an amazing experience and I hope you will have a similar one. Happy wine making!