How to Read a Hydrometer - Why are they so Confusing?
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- čas přidán 3. 07. 2024
- How to Read a Hydrometer - Why are they so Confusing? Was your specific gravity reading a 1.02 or a 1.002 or a 1.020 or a 1.200? I don't know who designed their graph, but... let me explain how it works to you. Reading a hydrometer correctly is a fundamental skill in homebrewing. It's not just for calculating your ABV anymore!
* Hydrometer amzn.to/2TGOdcx
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If you have horrible eyesight like me, take a photo with your phone and pinch to zoom, makes it much easier to read.
Mike G I do the same thing
LOL....i just did that !!
Haha rite on. I'll be doing that from now on. Thanks
Great tip, it's great for documentation later (if you forget to write it down.)
LOL! My teenage daughter (don’t worry guys, she’s 16 and it’s legal in my country) is currently doing a science project and chose to brew mead. When I told her to take the original gravity of her must she instantly took out her phone and snapped a picture. I was still rooting around for my reading glasses.
We just took the second reading after two weeks of fermentation (Buldog high alcohol mead yeast, that stuff is ACTIVE... and fast!) and it’s probably fermented out: we got a reading of 1.000. Snapped another picture for documentation and we’re going to take another reading in a week or so. If our calculations are correct she’s going to have a 5-litre fermenter with mead at 10,76% alcohol. We simply used the recipe on the package. Couldn’t immediately find the alcohol tolerance for this strain of yeast but a 10.76% alcohol content is plenty for her in-lab follow-up of her experiment. If she’s got any left, she wants to try to carbonate it.
Mmm... methinks she’s caught the bug...
Before anyone is all up in arms about this: we’re not big drinkers in the family, we don’t like the feeling of being hammered, and all grow up with the rule “drink alcohol to enjoy the taste, drink water for thirst, stand tall, walk straight, eat well before you drink, and being drunk is NOT a good look.” So far the lesson is sticking. I plan on keeping it sticking with everything I have in my power.
Every now and again, I come across a video that I utilize the pause and rewind feature to take notes. This is one of those. I found it very informative. On a completely off note, I often watch this series with a group of home brewers. We usually crack a batch, take notes ect. Every time a cat shows up in a video, we have to take a swig.
LOL! That is awesome.
You must always be aware of the gravity of the situation......
Now y’all are doing marriage counseling? Cause the Mrs and I are currently not brewing together because she couldn’t read one and didn’t tell me. Needless to say we have some mystery wines going now. Bless her heart she’s the best and tried. Y’all did a great job yet again. Many thanks!!
We have a newer version of this video if you're interested: czcams.com/video/Y0KP0WYreic/video.html
Thank you i know this video is older, but i am researching before i dump my first honey and water in a bucket :) So far yall have just about everything for the first timer like me :)
Thankfully i've had practice using vernier calipers for years, which does the same thing by stepping down to smaller measurements for higher accuracy. Btw, the curve in the water's surface is called the meniscus. 😉
Helped me thank you. Yes I finally got one and I also took your advice and got my wife into it by letting her come up with recipes. I'm hoping they turn out so she sticks with it.
Thanks for the research!
Super informative, I was just presented a Hydrometer as a gift and it was going way over my head. Can't believe how simple it is once its broken down.
Thank you. I didn’t understand how to read my hydrometer, but once I watched your video I finally understood! You’re the best.
took me forever to remember how to read it but i wouldn't want to make wine without it thanks for this you guys ROCK.
This was really helpful. Thanks!
So very glad you created this vid. Thank you!
Thank you for all your information and being so down to earth. I've been Bing watching all your videos taking notes and preparing to make my first Mead. Thank you for all your hard work and experience.
You are so welcome! Thank you for watching!
Personally, once I started trying to read the hydrometer, the "ten-fourteen" made it much easier to understand a reading. Now my mind naturally reads it that way. Thanks for the great tips.
Glad it helped!
When reading my hydrometer for the original gravity, sometimes I will say "a dollar nine, a dollar ten", etc, or the finally gravity of .992 will be "ninety-nine cents". It's the extra zeros when read aloud that become confusing. @@CitySteadingBrews
Great video - thanks for taking the time!
Probably the most informative video ever!! Thank you!
Thank you
THANK YOU
I've seen this one before but can't remember anything about it. And as i watch what's next. There it is, great timing guy's. So easy to follow what you say, it just makes sense.
Thank you for this breakdown 🙏
Glad it was helpful!
THANK YOU! You just solved an issue we were having... having higher gravity after a certain time... We never degassed our samples!!!
Thanks, good video.
Love you guys you're awesome
Best hydrometer video I've seen. Thanks.
Wow, thanks!
I was glad I knew exactly what video to watch as I took my very first hydrometer reading. I’m off to the races for real now!
Glad it helped!
Thank you so much!
You are very welcome!
Love ya guys me and fiancé finally got into a hobby together and couldn't have done it without your guidance so thanks! No one I found explains things and the process like you 2 do
That’s really cool you guys can do this together!
Thank You
You're welcome!
Thank you SO MUCH for this video. You made it so much easier to understand how to read those things. I started my first batch of mead (1 gallon) back on 8/6/22 (being a very novice hydrometer reader) and when I took the OG reading, I know I did it wrong. The musk line was resting somewhere between 1.124 and 1.130... I haven't taken the FG reading yet because my mead is still fermenting. But, having watched this video, I feel more confident on how to get a more accurate reading when it's time to take the FG reading. Thank you again! You guys are awesome.
Awesome! So glad you found this video helpful! Thank you for watching!
Love your videos. I now have two brews on the fridge with notes attached bubbling away. 😊
Best video I have found on the subject.
Glad it helped :)
COVID @ 09:04! Patient ZERO! Love you guys!
thanx very helpful!!! knew the higher it floats the more sugar was in it and that 1.11 was my sweet spot and when the yeast eat the sugars it would drop to almost the bottom.
You Brian and derica are awesome thank you very much
You are welcome!
First 5th time, the video I've been waiting on!!!
thanks for this video. I clearly understand how to read these numbers now. thumbs up.
Glad it was helpful!
Holy crap!!!.....i totally get it now....
thanks man...
very cool....
Thanks for the education! Everyone in my family knows I’m the Duty Science Geek and they just assume that I know how to read one. So I’ve received gifts that had me moderately baffled and squinting because the directions were written in teeny tiny jargon that was long on charts and graphs but short on actual instructions. They assume you know how to use it before you get it, much like general lab glass, so it’s short on educational value. I have bouts of MS induced cerebral flatulence, I’m about two thirds blind on a good day and they want me to get all excited about a hydrometer that I don’t know how to use. But I know a whole herd more now than I could deduce from the mystery midget print that I was slapping my eyeballs with! Thanks!
Lol.
Thanks for the great video it was awesome to have something to watch while my power is out
Great explanation on hygrometer helped massively 👍❤️
Glad it helped!
Wow. Than you so much for the detailed explanation. Took my 1st FG after yrs of brewing. Have a refractometer that works fine for OG but I kept getting funny FG (high ) readings. Hydrometer reading actually finished lower than calculated reading fri Brewers Friend App. Have been staring at my 20G batc waiting for it to finish and it was done. Got 74% efficiency using igloo coolers and batch sparring.
Glad it helped!
Just took my first spgr reading today got 1.016. Unfortunately I didn't get an og, started before I found your channel, so no idea of abv. Taking over a family tradition that my girlfriends grandfather used to do for Christmas. First thing she said when I pulled out the bung/airlock was "oh yeah red currant wine, smells right" And thanks for the hydrometer lesson, helped a lot.
Do you know how much honey you used and how much water? If you did a plain mead you can make an estimate of what it was using the pounds per gallon of honey. For example, I made a batch yesterday that was 2.2 pounds per gallon and guessed it would be about 1.076 to start. My measurement was dead on 1.076.
Thanks guys. I just put on my first brew, apple cider. And this helped me so much!
It might also be important to point out that your SG can go up a little at first if you put in a lot of fruit from the sugars leeching out into the liquid, and to include those sugars into your calculations for ABV
Thanks great video, I just realised I missed up my first reading then found this video. :)
So it's true I was drinking a lot of winethat i learned how to make from you guys and by the way I've gotten rave reviews on your homemade wine just your basic wine everybody loves it and you guys are my heroes in that comment I was trying to reach out to people in foreign countries
Love the light easy info sharing, but you nearly lost me at dropping the cat 3:22 and shooing her/him away, luckily I did watch to the end to see her make a second attempt to be part of it all. Include the cat she/he is beautiful. Thank you for the channel.
Dropped the cat? Doibtful we would harm our cats... those are our kids.
CS Mead and More..understood ..perhaps it just seemed a little unceremonious to get her/him out of shot or mischief....just when I thought ...ooooh they have a cat ...
MAGNIFICOOOOOOOOOOOO
on a serious note though I think a good video idea for you guys would be to put all of the actual stages of making alcohol on a sort of timeline. cuz I'm sure you've got different things brewing at various stages in your house... And I'm not saying you don't give this information anyways... I'm just saying I had to look all around your CZcams to find it and I kind of pieced it all together from video to video
Wowowowow I gotta watch this like 6 more times I still don’t get it!
Thanks guys for this video. It was very helpful. I'm subbed but never seen any food prep videos? Love you guys. I would like to party with yall sometime.
We have another channel for that. czcams.com/users/CSCooksandGrows
The meniscus line is the term alluding you. Sorry if some one stated below. Specific Gravity is used in all sorts of stuff like finding the actual volume of a substance using 62.4#/cf..(Weight of a cubic foot of water)..even non liquid say Asphalt.Hmmm what does that have to do with a Hydrometer?
Just mixed our first gallon about an hour ago. Now I get to hurry up and wait.
Bruh
You just have to wait faster
Lol
Nice
Long-time Watcher first-time Brewer I love you guys and your show show learning a lot taking a lot of notes I sometimes laugh out loud anytime I see that you guys have cat problems well not problems just themwalking around yeah am here least I know that I'm not the only crazy cat person trying to make wine and Mead. 🐱😹😺😸
this one really helped me! I FINALLY did my first reading last night and was completely confused ( I was making your black currant btw ...CANT WAIT! tee hee hee) Thanks!
Your video on how to make hard cider popped up in my feed so figured I'd watch it been thinking about trying to make hard cider and mead for awhile now after watching a bunch of your videos I went to the local wine shop today and purchased the equipment needed to get started making hard cider and mead. I made my first 1 gal batch of Honey lemon zest hard Apple cider today. Was wondering if I read the hydrometer correct but after everything was mixed for 20min it read 1.090 so after watching this video I think I understand 🤔 and believe I read it right 🤷🏻♂️😆 just wanted to say thanks for all your hard work in making these videos, love them they help so much and offer so many ideas for future brews to try👍thanks again from the Thomas family in Northern Wisconsin 😊🍻
Glad we could help! Thank you for watching! :D
Hydrometers for Dummies! Thank you! That helped a lot.
As a paramedic, I was taught to put a number before the decimal for medical/scientific calculations. So "zero point nine nine zero".
When I use my hydrometer it reminds me of fishing bobbers I used when I was a kid. I keep wanting to tie a line and a hook to it before testing a mash or wort. Don't worry, I haven't started brewing with fish yet. Hmm...sockeye salmon ale...kind of puts the "gag" in gag-gift.
Design a new one. You guys could do it! Thanks for all your help.
Rite!!?? I was just talking about that with the wife,we both can't understand why we continue to use anything from over a hundred years ago. Lol
Meniscus- That's the bendy thing that liquids do due to surface tension. You guys rock!
Yep! Couldn't think of the word while the camera was on!
Your hydrometer really goes to ELEVEN??? Bahahah, great Spinal Tap reference. Made my day. And thanks for demystifying how to read this doggone thing. Appreciate you putting this out there for us newbs.
Lol I'm still lost but love your videos
Actually the most informative video I've seen thank you. Just a suggestion you could have your beer/wine in 3 or 4 different states so we can watch the progression of them using the hydrometer.
I agree, I would Definitely benefit from that
Excellent video, guys! Very instructive.
I have a question about a situation that I have never encountered before, and I would be eternally grateful for your advice.
Almost 3 days ago I began a one gallon batch of Ancient Orange Mead. I have made this before without any issues. This time, however, I am using the original Fleischmann’s bread yeast instead of wine yeast. I used 3.75 lbs of clover honey, and followed the recipe exactly. I rehydrated the yeast (2.25 tsp) in 4 oz water with a tsp of sugar. It rehydrated very nicely. After all the mixing and aeration, I filled the glass carboy with the ingredients and water to very near the top. I still had about a third of a gallon of spring water left. My OG hydrometer reading astounded me: 1.162!!! You read that right because I triple checked it.
The airlock began bubbling roughly 30 minutes after pitching the yeast. This is a first for me. After two hours it was full-on percolating like a beast and still is!
Now for my question: should I be worried? Will the yeast crap out and leave me with a sweet liquid and barely any alcohol or will it be rocket fuel when finished? (I did add nutrient right before pitching the yeast.)
What are your thoughts? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Yours,
The Insane Prepper
Should be fine if it kicked in. Maybe there was more sugars in your oranges this time? Or your honey was a little more dense.
CS Brews Thanks for the timely reply. I was just a little nervous because I had never worked with bread yeast before and didn’t know what to expect. If it suddenly dies I plan to add nutrient and energizer and see what happens. But today I am making your recipe of a gallon of sweet red wine using grape juice and sugar and bread yeast. Thanks again!
Huzzah! I can read a hydrometer! Thank you!
Thank you so freaking much I think I finally really understand now 🙌
Happy to help!
As a final reading I got two marks higher than 0.990 just curious if that would make it 0.960 or 0.860 ? I'm sorry I hope that makes sense. I'm absolutely horrible with this number stuff lol
Two marks? Should be 0.994
@@CitySteadingBrews ok thank you very much I appreciate it greatly 😊
Thank you for this video. I was reading it so wrong. Did it the first time and was like, why/how do I have a negative alcohol content?!?
Hey Brian I was wondering how much sugar is to much in a all liquid Cherry melowmel 1 gallon before adding the yeast, hydrometer wise?
👍 for the Spinal Tap reference @ 3:26
Now I can say I went to science college but learned hydrometer from a wine maker! Mmmmm I'm ok😀
Do you adjust for temperature? I just made my first batch of mead and the hydrometer packaging said to add 2 points since it's 77°
I love your channel and have started making wine, my first 4 gallons I did not have a hydrometer but I ended up getting one for the current 2 gallons I just started last night. I had a question on the readings along with the potential abv scale. So one of my batches the OG was 1.110 which puts the potential around 15% can I use the potential scale along with my ending reading once fermentation stops to figure out abv. So like to make things easy to explain my ending gravity got to 1.000 it would be around 15% basically subtracting the difference between the two numbers and using that number to line up on the scale.
Thank you. Just...thank you. The .2's were killing my brain. My son is in his senior year of a Chemical Engineering degree and even he didn't know how to read it.
10:00 What I learned is that you can't keep a cat on the ground if it doesn't want to be on the ground. Sneaky kitty.
Great quality vid and informative. Did you shoot with a Blackmagic ATEM?
Nope. Sony!
I have a question about the Hydrometer reading and back sweetening. If you take an OG and your mead goes dry, so you back sweeten and it starts fermenting again, do you add the OG with the new gravity when you back sweeten, then subtract the FG when it stops fermenting?
My question as well. Mine went to 1.000 after 2 weeks, so I added 1#honey which brought it back to 1.022. What math do I use to estimate the abv with the next reading?
Do you need to take a reading in the beginning for your mead. Can I wait until later or before first racking.
The readings change during fermentation.... for more, watch this video: czcams.com/video/6aLlJUMBEN0/video.html
my mead has been fermenting for 3 weeks i did not take an initial specific gravity reading but i just checked it and its only at 1.090 seams like its going really slow could i have a problem or is that normal?
I don't trust any of my readings before I got reading glasses. FB group is great by the way.
If I like sweeter mead can I ferment it shorter? Like after 4 weeks
i checked a specific gravity temperature conversion chart and from 40 degrees to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and only had a 1% deviation
Could you please explain which of the below two formulae is the correct one.
a. initial gravity minus final gravity, times 131.25 = ABV% or
b. initial gravity minus final gravity, divided by 7.362
Which one is correct? And why these numbers are constantly used.
Both and neither. They are essentially the same thing, just going about it a different route. We use (OG-FG)X135, due to it being a bit more accurate at 10%+ ABV. Just know that no simple formula is 100% accurate for homebrewing. Lab test are the only true way to accuracy. For me, +/-2% is close enough.
What if it passed 2 weeks and you strain your fruit, do we let it sit and see if it bubbles more with air lock or bottle it if it says 1.000 still?
is there somewhere I can punch in my start recipe and get my estimated OG .
Im dying to know what my OG was, it was my first brew and its still bottled and degassing but its been 4 weeks and currently reads 1.040
but I can HEAR IT doing something so im confused whats happening
Love your video's. They have been super helpful. I hear a lot of things like, "it dropped a point or two after.......". I was wondering what exactly is the point. For example, is a drop from 1.130 to 1.120 concidered a point? Or 1.130 to 1.030.
1.030- 1.029
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks so much for the quick reply.
I set up my Brew at 1.110 sg and when I tested it at racking it had gone down to .994. Would I be correct that at this point it has produced around 13% ABV. If so it was bread yeast i used. I am making a custard apple wine. I found out afterwards that they have just about every nutrient and essential mineral that the yeast wants. It only took 45 minutes to almost blow the lid off. Had to shake it for several hours to get the foam down and left the bottle in a bucket overnight. Hope i am reading the sg correctly
Is there a chart to see where i should be at during fermentation? Or what way i should be going and if its wrong how to correct it by adding something to get the numbers i need?
As long as the gravity goes down, it’s working. Every fermentation is anlittle different.
Hey guys just started making muscdine wine just pour on my yeast do I take a hydrometer reading now or after it start fermentation
Prior to fermentation or it's not really accurate at all.
My hydrometer is reading below the sp. gr 60degrees primary fermentation elderberry. What does that mean? Also, It has been 7 days since I started it. I read somewhere that you shouldn’t let fruit wine go more then 7 days. Should I let it sit more?
First... below what spgr? And you can let fermentations go far more than 7 days.
So if I didnt take a reading initially, is there no way to calculate alcohol content? I followed your blueberry mead video but I didnt have a hydrometer at the time. Got one coming in next week, but as far as I can tell I'll just be able to see when fermentation has stopped without that first reading. Help🥺
This was very helpful and you've got yourself a new subscriber! but I still have couple of doubts:
Most hydrometers I've seen have this colored rings with labels such as table wine, dessert wine , beer etc.And according to the instructions of my hydrometer i should not bottle anything with a lecture over 1.006. So the questions are: Are the rings suposed to give you an idea of what the final product is going to be like ? How does priming beers fits into this?
Basically cally ignore thise, lol. Yes, they are a guide, but... brews finish at different gravities. Never saw the thing about bever bottling over a certain gravity.... according to that, half my brews, more actually, shouldn’t be bottled. Without more information, I would say it’s incorrect.
I made my first mead following your beginner mead today. Made two different batches. Only difference is I added about 3 Oz of raisens instead of 2oz for first batch, and different honey than orange blossom. First mead with all ingredients as your beginner mead was exactly 1.10 when I took the first must reading. Second one was 1.130 . I don't know what this means, but it's way different reading. Is this ok?
Do you shoot for 0.992 or 0.990 for your wines before racking/aging etc? And is it ever good (or even possible) to get your wine batch to an even lower level than 0.990 and would you ever want to??
I shoot for completed fermentation. The final gravity is dependent on yeast tolerance, so it's not always going to go that low.
how often should you check the specific gravity of the mead
Once a week after 3-4 weeks.
Awesome thank you! I have home grown grapes and a first time brewer. Long story the first reading I got was 1.176 is this an okay place to start?
Are you sure you got 1.176 OG? That is VERY high, as in, it probably won't ferment. I'd split that in half and dilute with water.
CS Mead and More nope I have learned it was a 1.076:)
Suzanne
Does it matter whether or not you test from the bucket directly or is it better to have a 'test jar' of some sort?
If your hydrometer can float, you're fine either way.
New to brewing wine so forgive me. My wine is already in a carboy with an airlock inserted, it's been about 2 weeks. I just got my hydrometer, so needless to say I didn't get an initial reading. Should I take a reading now? If so, and it's high or low, can sugar or water be added for an adjustment, or should I just wait for the fermentation process to complete and then adjust? I'm just trying to figure out how/when to make the adjustment. Thanks
Without knowing your recipe, it's hard to know what could be happening, but... if it is fermenting, let it go, then use the end readings to determine fermentation finishing. What is the recipe? I could give an estimate of your original gravity from that, perhaps.
THANK YOU.. DES CREAN ,BELFAST ,, IRELAND