# Ballin Saccharometer



## bevie55 (May 18, 2008)

Hi,


I am getting back into the hobby of winemaking after two decades. I found my old balling saccharometers but have no clue how to read them. Is there a guide somewhere. I have three of them. The one that has the graduations of 0 through 8 when it put in 60 degree farenheit water read zero. The next one starts at 8 and goes to 16. The third one goes from 16 to 24. I started some Dandelion must yesterday according to the recipe I found on your site and got a reading of 18 today. Do you have any wild guesses what this is telling me????


Please understand I am not ordinarily an idiot. I am a registered nurse and have been trained to read and interpret measurements precisesly because somebody's life may depend on it.


I will be deeply in your debt if you can clear up my saccharometer confusion. Thanks, Bev


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## smurfe (May 18, 2008)

Hello and welcome. Your Saccrometer is a hydrometer. The values you post I am sure are Brix values. I believe Balling and Brix are the same thing.Most hydrometers today show the Specific Gravity (SG) values. I do have one that shows both. I am pretty sure the 18 reading is 18 Brix which equates to an SG around 1.074 which equates to9.5% to10% alcohol levels in the finished wine if you ferment to dry depending on which chart you use. You can find numerous conversion charts out there. I believe there is one posted here as well. 


http://www.finevinewines.com/brix_table.htm


You can also find a calculator/converter like this one and save the page.


http://fredx.org/brewing/convert.php


When you take your readings just enter them here and it will convert it to SG which is the normal readings you see in most of the lingo today. I use Brix mostly in beer making as I use a refractometer to measure the gravity of my wort. I then have to take my Brix reading and divide it by 1.04 to determine my Degrees/Plato. I have a beer software program that figures all of that for me though. *Edited by: smurfe *


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## grapeman (May 18, 2008)

The reason you have 3 of them is that they are narrow range instruments, which increases their accuracy. To make things easier and perfect for wine making, you might consider buying a couple new hydrometers. That way you will be on the same page as others into the hobby. They are pretty cheap, so I recommend two. If you buy one, you will drop it when you can least afford to. If you get two, you rarely break any. 


Welcome back to the hobby and we are thrilled you found our forum.


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## NorthernWinos (May 18, 2008)

Welcome Bevie55...hope you find your answers here.

We love to share each others experiments and successes.


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## bevie55 (May 18, 2008)

Yes! I have found my answers here. Hoo! Ha! I am on my way to some yummy Dandelion wine. The color is going to be absolutely beautiful, I can tell already. Thanks!


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## moose (May 18, 2008)

Welcome Bevie55.


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