Brianna Grapes

[ffemt128]

As great as it tastes now just wait.

I agree and told myself and my wife, this does not get touched for sampling until at least March.....

 

[rob]

last fall when we crushed theses grapes I held back 2 gallon of pure juice and froze it. I just added 3/4 of a quart to the 6 gallon carboy, it changed the sg from .975 to .984 not much...is that enough to change the flavor. I sorta kinda can taste a difference, in the past it seems I have to make more drastic changes to taste something different...maybe I just lack a good pallet. What are your thoughts??

 

[grapeman]

I think your hydrometer is off. More likely about.994 to begin, so it would be about 1.004 now. That should be OK. Too much more and it will get too sweet and dilute the alchohol. You could have taken a gallon and reduced it on the stovetop by half and put that in. The diltion would have been the same as now, but twice the added flavor and a bit sweeter, which brings out the fruit. I bet it will be great as is in a couple months or more.

 

[rob]

Thanks Grapeman, But I no longer use a hydrometer, just the refractometer. I found it to be much more accrurate.

 

[grapeman]

I don't understand. The readings you gave are for a hydrometer scale of specific gravity. A refractrometer reads and measures brix and as it ferments and alchohol forms, it doesn't give an accurate reading. Do you have a digital one or something?

 

[rob]

Sorry Grapeman, I should of been more specific, I posted a thread on this a few weeks back. Yes I did give the sg reading from the hydrometer, but only because I converted it from a refractometer calculator. The great thing about using the refractometor meter is you take away most of the guess work. Keep in mind the refractometer will read the sugar in the must, but once you start adding alcohol it skews the reading, so you will need a sg calculator to convert. Bottom line is it is much easier to read a scale on the refractometer over the hydrometer, plus it will give you increments much smaller.

 

[grapeman]

Rob my main point was that the readings you gave are just too low for wine to go. It just does not ever go below .990 and usually ends at .994 or so at dry. We all have our instruments of choice and you should use what you are comfortable with, just make sure it is accurate.

By the way, the grapes in my avatar are St. Pepin, another one of Elmer Swenson's varieties.

 

[djrockinsteve]

Rob my main point was that the readings you gave are just too low for wine to go. It just does not ever go below .990 and usually ends at .994 or so at dry. We all have our instruments of choice and you should use what you are comfortable with, just make sure it is accurate.

By the way, the grapes in my avatar are St. Pepin, another one of Elmer Swenson's varieties.

Beg to differ. My wines frequently go below .990. It's just that the hydrometer won't show that. If you use a refractor you can see exactly how far below it is.

Rob has done a few tests lately that are interesting. Just gotta get em posted.

 

[grapeman]

This could turn out to be pretty interesting. I have never heard of wine below a specific gravity of .990. I am not beyond learning new things..............

 

[djrockinsteve]

Rob needs to explain it. He used a refractor to measure sugar and you can convert that reading to a gravity. It goes much lower.

I add superferment at 1.000 and seal it up after stirring must real well. I have to add a good amount of sugar just to get it to .990. From there my hydrometer works perfect.

With the refractor measuring sugar of the must that answers a lot of questions I have regarding this. I'll mail him and have him post it.

 

[Runningwolf]

Interesting I use both instruments and have not gone below .990 either. My refractometer is a digital. There are a few good spread sheets for converting brix to sg. I think More Wine and Valley Vinter both have them.

Steve I also just started using Superferment also 2/3 the way through fermentation. I am using goferm for my starters.

 

[grapeman]

You also need a spreadsheet calculation to correct for the alchohol in the wine or beer. The lower the sg drops, the more the alchohol affects the reading. For me, I just use the refractometer for juice and initial testing. Once I get to clear wine, I prefer the hydrometer. To me, thousandths is close enough and I don't need any conversions that could lead to math errors.

 

[Runningwolf]

Rich the spread sheet I use is from start to finish of the wine. So it takes into account your initial reading and each subsequent reading after that. I am not a math person so I can't explain it. Regardless I still just can't get away from taking a hydrometer reading anyways. The calculations come out very close. If anything it's possible the hydrometer could be off because I'm not degassing first.

Some day I'll get a set of just brix hydrometers that will have very short spreads for easier reading and accuracy.