Sg reading
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The very top of the hydrometer is the lowest SG. Going down you will see "1.000". If your reading is just below that as the .4000 mark, yes, it is reading 1.040.
However, with 6 pounds of sugar in 1 gallon of must, I doubt the SG would be that low.
Make sure your hydrometer's side are not sticking to something. When you put it into the must, give the hydrometer a spin to spin off any air bubbles.
Also, some hydrometers have 3 different scales. Make sure you are reading the proper scale for Specific Gravity.
The very top of the hydrometer is the lowest SG. Going down you will see "1.000". If your reading is just below that as the .4000 mark, yes, it is reading 1.040.
However, with 6 pounds of sugar in 1 gallon of must, I doubt the SG would be that low.
Make sure your hydrometer's side are not sticking to something. When you put it into the must, give the hydrometer a spin to spin off any air bubbles.
Also, some hydrometers have 3 different scales. Make sure you are reading the proper scale for Specific Gravity.
BernardSmith
Senior Member
Hi CrazyPapa. You say you added sugar. I tend to be a literalist so I wonder whether you dissolved all 6.5 lbs sugar in the rhubarb or you simply added the sugar to the juice. If some of the sugar did not dissolve then your hydrometer reading would not reflect the total amount of sugar available for the yeast. You say you added 6.5 lbs to two gallons of juice. Six and a half pounds is 104 ozs or 52 ozs per gallon. Two ozs of sugar per gallon of liquid increases the the SG by approximately 0.005, so adding 52 ozs should have resulted in a specific gravity of 1.130 (I am assuming no sugar in the juice is coming from the rhubarb, which would result in an even higher SG.) or about 17.7 % alcohol by volume (ABV). Your reading of 1.040 suggests your must has only 5. 4% ABV.
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It will need to do more than set. The sugar water can form its own layer and stay that way indefinitely or until it is stirred really, really well. Never dump sugar straight into the must. The sugar should be dissolved in a small amount of warm water before adding, then stirred in really well.
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CrazyPapa said:
Yikes, that is a pretty high SG! Usually you don't want to start it above 1.100.
If fermentation does not start, take a cup of your must, add a cup of water. Add yeast to this mixture. Once this starter gets going, add it to your must.
jamesngalveston
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If, and thats a big if, it finnishes at 1.000 it will be about 18 abv...thats alot.
BernardSmith
Senior Member
CrazyPapa, Thanks for posting that photo. You confirmed my calculations. If you look at the hydrometer closely you will see that ruler is at the line close to 1.140 rather than 1.040. It is true that that the number looks like 40 but above the 40 is a line marked 1.100 and the numbers below that point need to be understood that 1.1 needs to be appended to the number. Your wine may contain too much alcohol (potentially if it ferments dry you are going to have about 18 percent or more alcohol ) but your yeast may be unable to tolerate such a relatively high concentration of alcohol and might simply die before all the sugar is fermented. That can mean that your fermentation will stop with a significant quantity of residual sugar still unfermented. And that can mean that the wine will taste sweet, perhaps too sweet for your taste. ONE possible solution is to add more rhubarb juice (without any additional sugar) enough to reduce the Specific Gravity closer to 1.100 or even closer to 1.090 (in other words, your hydrometer should be floating lower in the wine). Of course , if you are comfortable fermenting the 2 gallons of rhubarb with this amount of sugar then you should ignore my suggestion to dilute your must (your wine) with more juice.
jamesngalveston
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see the 90 above the 1.100 that is where you should be....if it ferments out to lets say 1.000. that would be about 12 abv.
what kind of yeast did you use.
what kind of yeast did you use.
wineon4
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Cote des Blancs max's out around 14% abv Montrachet even lower at 12 to 13 abv the Pasteur will go up to about 15% - 16% abv. Red Star Cuvee can go to 18% and is an aggressive fermenter, Also if you used Cote it is a very slow starter, keep around 72 degrees and it should start in a day or two. Any one of these 3 yeasts are not going to take this wine to dry. Try and dilute with some white grape juice and make a bigger batch say 5 gal. of Rhubarb/Niagara, sounds good I have tons of fresh Rhubarb to get started working with. Good Luck
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wineon4
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Since this juice has not yet started to ferment alcohol content is not the reason it has not yet started. I would let it go for another day. You said you used Cote des Blancs, this is a slow working yeast. If it were my wine I would wait a few days for it to start then dilute it down to a lower SG.
