Sugars in Homebrew Mead, Wine and Cider - Gravity Measurements
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- čas přidán 29. 12. 2022
- Sugars used in Hombrew for mead, wine and cider. There are so many things you can use for sugars in homewbrew. Each is unique and has it's own properties. One of those is specific gravity per pound per gallon or PPG. This gives an indication of how much of any given sugar you need to achieve a certain specific gravity. All of this is merely a guide, use your hydrometer to be sure.
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High school math class would be way more interesting if they included word problems like: Your juice has a gravity of 1.052 and you add one pound of sugar to it. What would be your approximate OG, and what is the potential ABV?
Omg yes! That’s awesome!
Savannah Bee Company has bourbon barrel aged honey. That seems like it would be down your alley.
Wuuut I didn't know that. (I'm near savannah)
Fantastically informative video! Thank you Brian!
I freaking love this channel! You two rock!
I am new to making homemade wine. The videos you guys do are packed with useful and great information. I enjoy watching you guys.
Great explanation Brian, as always love your info and videos.
Btw Happy new year to both of you also
Happy new year team B&D!!!!!
Great video. Thank you.
Thx Brian just started taking notes didn’t listen in the beginning but am now lol even started labels learning a lot from you guys sometimes I don’t listen so thx for repeating this
Use that Hydrometer too! I always tell myself that. I always enjoy seeing that O.G.
Thank you again for the continued education on home brewing. I believe I'm starting to get the "swing" of fermenting sugars and blending flavors. I grew up in my grandparents home back in the 60's and they regularly set out a brew each year. My grandpa showed me a lot of the process (especially how to leave it alone until it was ready, the lid would rattle and burp, then go silent for a month).
Until your videos, I never made my own batch. First one was the "easiest apple cider" recipe I think that was the name. It turned out great and disappeared fast 😊.
The sweet cherry pom wine is the one I'm working on now, ya, that's the one with 36 oz of black cherries, one gallon of water, 24oz of pomegranate juice and two pounds of sugar, it's still bubblin away. The fermenter "is" the big mouth one and one half gallon with air lock. I've figured out the starting SPGV was above 1.1, with the fruit sugars incorporated during fermentation, (1lb pure cane sugar, 1gal. Water) but I made original mistake by adding fruit sugars twice (1st SPGV plus fruit sugars, when fruit with juice was already in).
So, two lbs of "pure cane sugar" (local grower), 36oz frozen sweet cherries (Publix), 24oz pom juice (Publix), 4oz raisins, gallon of water and Red star premier classique yeast!? How long will it ferment and will it go dry again (1lb first, then back sweetened 1/2lb. Twice)?
Happy new year and let's see how far we can push the yeast 😀🤣😜👍❤️🙏
Great 📹 🎥
Very informative, thank you. I really enjoy amber honey, primarily from Black Locust trees, for my Mead.
One taste of Salt Cedar Honey might be enough to tempt you to try it, too.
Another great educational vid, thanks. Hoping latest batch comes out ok, via a comedy of errors ended up at OG 1.120, a bit high for 14% yeast. Won't happen again tho...with this vid, calculator & new drill attach stirrer tool arrived today, won't miss honey stuck on bottom of fermenter which had prompted me to add too much
Could you do a video/chart of the different pH levels for brews, how to adjust the pH for a successful brew, etc. I know you lightly discussed the topic in one of your videos where the fermentation got stuck. I was thinking a short video regarding that subject might help other homebrewers avoid and/or correct that possibility. Thanks
Awesome video thank you Brian. I'm going to have to watch this one a few more times and take notes. ✌😁✌
Since its cold out now and I don't have a very warm place in house I guess my wine making is on hold until warmer weather. I never thought about temperatures outside affecting fermentation before.
Some times a simple little thing can help to keep your brew going. Fridges give off heat. Setting a fermenter on top of the fridge, i. The column of warm, ascending air, can make a difference of several degrees and might be enough to keep a brew from going dormant. Of you have a stove, keeping your fermenter a little closer to your stove can help. Using a piece of styrofoam or cardboard wrapped in tin foil to make sure embers don’t cause a fire hazard and putting your fermenter on top of that can help insulate the fermenter from cold ascending from the floor, increasing the effect from the stove. When the heating shuts off at night, I wrap active ferments in a beach towel or a blanket, to keep it from cooling off too much overnight when it’s very cold. Another option is a cooler. Put your fermenter inside the cooler and add something that radiates collected heat. Examples: used your oven? Add one of those little pillows filled with cherrystones in your oven before it cooled off, leave it in for 10-15 minutes. Add it inside the cooler (not touching) and close the lid. If the cooler isn’t big enough to fit your fermenter with the airlock still on, a couple of blankets should do the trick. Didn’t use the oven? Use the microwave to heat that little pillow. A brick wrapped in foil (hygiene, bricks can be dirty) can serve too. Wouldn’t advise putting it in the microwave but the oven works. If you can find a second hand heating mat for plants, it might be an affordable option.
Now that energy has become much more expensive, I’ve started looking for ways to save up whilst not having the fermenters I’ve still got going stall on me. The main thing is to insulate from incoming cold and to harness generated heat that’s being produced anyways, and to keep it where it’s at for as long as possible.
Fridges and other electric appliances generate heat unless they’re shut off, so I use the heat from the ones I have to keep running 24/7 either when I’m not at home, or when I’m sleeping. Where appliances that only run when I’m using them are concerned, I harness their heat when they’re being used (heat from cooking, running the dishwasher, wood burning stove, oven, etc ate examples). Either by moving the fermenter to its vicinity, or by heating an item capable of storing heat close/inside/on top and using that as a mini-radiator. Wrapped bricks, pizza stone, cherrystone pillow…
Insulators: styrofoam, blankets, multiple layers of cardboard, old newspapers, bath towels, …
Of course, this only works under certain circumstances. My fermenters are 1-2 gallon fermenters. I only have 4-5 going simultaneously at any one time of year anyway. Temps in my house never go below 15°C (59°F) and as such, I only need to compensate by a few degrees Celsius. But so far, it has worked.
Hope this rambling pakes sense and helps.
@@eddavanleemputten9232 You are soo Awesome and helpful. I just started making my own wine from Welch's grape juice and I love giving it away, so there went the good stuff. 😁. The one I made with some apple juice not as good, just ok. I have 2- I gal jugs brewing with grape apple blend for 3 weeks now and I dont want them to stop fermenting. I have them in cabinet about 3 feet from electric water heater. I am thinking in gas oven would be better because of pilot light. Oh yum I have 1 gal carboy empty about to get refilled with straight Welch's grape juice, yum.
Thank you so much for helping me brainstorm. Yay soo Happy.
South Louisiana here so my home does not get below 72 as long as power stays on in Storms, weather so unpredictable, So I am probably good to go. Peace be with you always. ✌😁✌🙏🇺🇸🙏
I do 5 gallon Sparkletts bottles and I have had good luck with multiple layers of bubblewrap. Fermentation gives off a bit of heat by itself. An inside closet also helps, as it is slower to change temperature as is a high shelf.
@@russbilzing5348 Thank you very much. Happy New Year Everyone God Bless us all 🙏🙏🙏🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸⚔🛡⚔✌😁✌🤸♀️
Exactly answered my question i wanted 2 ask yu in the past few days. Thought: how can i get my question un2 him??? maybee yu telepathically recieved my question. K then... see yu next year
Sibce it's winter season: un-plugged my referigerator - put a 10w light bulb inside in a big enough stone cup - my referigerator is now happily my brewing chamber.
D'oh, why didn't I think of googling the sugar levels in fruit? I made some (16 liters) apple wine, and tried to measure the gravity, but since I juiced the fruits myself, I got lots of tiny fibres of fruit in the juice, so it was impossible to measure. Thanks for making me think, and thanks for great videos!
Hi,
First of all, sorry for commenting on this particular video as my questions are more general, but I've been binge-watching pretty much everything you posted. I had no idea what meads taste like before, I never had mead, I live in Romania and mead is not really a thing here. But I found and bought mead in the Christmas fair in Cardiff, Wales recently, and I love it. I really, really want to get into this now!
But here's my problem. As I said before I live in Romania. Converting imperial measurements is not a big deal, but finding recipients of the same size is. There's no such thing as a one gallon recipient here, however 5 liter or 10 liter is normal. Another issue is: honey might be different here. I have a very reliable source, I can buy honey from a local producer, who is also a friend, at a discount price too. But I'm afraid, it will have a different consistency and/or sugar content. So my question is this (for your simplest honey+tea+raisins+water+yeast recipe): how much tolerance is there regarding your quantities?
As I noticed, you pretty much fill up about 1/4 of the volume with honey. Would that be a fair estimate, should I go with that?
Or should I still just upscale the weight?
Yeasts also go by different names here, but wine yeasts are easy to come by, from what I saw on the websites, the different kinds are between 12 and 16% alcohol tolerance. I wonder which one would work best? i wouldn't go for bread yeast as judging from my own baking experience the commercially available ones tend to be unpredictable, some of them don't really do what they should do. I'm aiming for a regular, sweet, 10-12% -ish alcohol content mead.
Thank you for reading this, thanks for all the great information!
P.S. If you ever answer this in a video, don't struggle with my name, just call me Francis... :)
hi there from the netherlands
i use basic 5 liter most to 1.5 kg honey a cup tea and good hand of raisons for 10liter make it 3 kg remind to test and eventually sweeten
my 31 liters uses a stunning 10 kg honey , tasted it today and it needs another 1.5 to 2 kg to sweeten
hope this helps ;)
Idk how much it helps, but an American gallon is very close to 3.75 litre. It's definitely not the simplest math, but 5l is close enough that you can get it to work.
As far as yeast, I like ec-1118. You definitely can use turbo yeast, but if you do I would use more nutrients.
The reason why I would use nutrients with turbo yeast is because the formula in there causes the yeast to stress a bit, and it can produce some musty flavors. Nutrients help. In fact always use nutrients. Fermaid-O is great.
As far as recipes, I would be more concerned with getting the specific gravity right.
It's actually very difficult to know if a flavor will or will not work without fully letting it age.
Thank you for your tip about back sweetening a finished brew with non fermentable sugar rather than having to use pasteurisation. In this case, my brew was your ginger beer recipe but using erythritol non fermentable sugar to back sweeten. I cannot speak of allulose here as I cannot buy it in Spain but I can get erythritol. Your recipe worked great - strong ginger flavour, nice citrus note and pleasing natural sweetness with the erythritol. All ready to prime and store. Sadly, while I was enjoying the "brewer's share", I came upon a problem. Some people's digestion (mine included) cannot tolerate significant amounts of erythritol. After 12 hours of sh*tting through the eye of a needle, I can confirm that erythritol's effect on some digestive tracts is an issue you may want to mention. I do hope allulose doesn't share this problem because your suggestion is such a wonderful easy fix 😗😶🙂
Some are more sensitive than others, but usually you need significant amounts, sorry you had to deal with that!
Oh that is awful. I hope that in the future you will soon be able to find Allulose. It will not do that to you.
Brian.... love the vids.
Quick question... How often do you check the spgr, during fermentation.
Do you wait til it slows down?
Or do you check it periodically?
I'm a week into cherry-berry mead, and don't know if I should helicopter my brew, or GTFO of its way.
Oops, I forgot to include the 1lb of orange blossom honey (Publix 😊) that was added originally to the "sweet cherry pom wine".
Kinda why I keep wondering why it went dry so quickly?👍❤️
Have you guys done a video on CoFermentation? In cider specifically?
It's just using two types of apples, right? We generally use juices which are probably blends of many apples.
Hi Brian, what about fructose, is it the same as white sugar?
As far as sg readings? Yes, about the same.
I’m sure someone has asked this but how about agave? Would it be similar to maple? Or stevia?(not anxious to try this one as I don’t like the taste period) Would it be similar to the sugar that everyone claims it’s a substitute for? (no it isn’t. There is an aftertaste. If you need sweet for sweet sake sure but each sweetener has a taste profile and a mouthfeel for those that don’t realize it.) Yes I know I must put my research hat on and I will. Just wondering about others brewing experience as each fermentable acts and reacts differently from the next.
Stevia does not ferment.
@@russbilzing5348 thank you! I didn’t know that.
So if water is 1.000 and sugar increases this number, what causes the something to go to 0.990 after fermentation? Evaporation?
Alcohol is lower than 1.000 so when water and alcohol mix the result can be lower than 1.000.
So the only thing I'm a bit unclear on is how to start with what I want my abv to be and then back track to get a guide on how much specific gravity of sugar I should be adding ?
I also figure if I know what a predicted final gravity reading should be as it will help me tell the difference between something going dry and stalling.
Starting gravity = desired ab? / 135.
As for done or stalled...czcams.com/video/2FqCLcYDlo8/video.htmlsi=zPcHx0NvDRQl3DfU
How would you take a reading on a 5 gallon batch???
The same way? You pull a sample and use a hydrometer.
Question, I seem to recall comment somewhere that 10% ABV final is ok to keep without refrigeration, but under 10% gets risky. Talking about non bottled, not carbonated but rather storing in sanitized plastic jug. Help please?
I wouldn't store in a plastic jug...
The higher the abv the better preserved it is. In truth, the abv needs to be higher than fermentation can take it to truly preserve but every bit helps. Unbottled, it won't last long no matter what you do as it will oxidize quickly.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thx that helps. All my storage is actually in sanitized glass in fridge after pasteurizating. And there's been no problem, friends & fam make sure the stuff disappears really kwik. Hoping the new 6.5 gal fermenter helps! Cheers klink RC
I used a couple pounds of home grown blackberries. I froze them and then pureed them before putting them in with honey and water. I took a gravity reading with a hydrometer (1.07) but I'm now wondering how accurate that is since the fruit puree is more solid. Anyone have any thoughts?
@@kb2vca First thank you so much for that information. I appreciate it.
The recipe specifics:
roughly 2lbs of blackberries, frozen and then pureed.
5lbs of honey
enough water to get to around 2.8 gallons according to the numbers on the fermenter
Lalvins 71B yeast
I should have been more detailed with the measurements of the ingredients. Doing some rough math based on quantities of honey and fruit 1.07 might be close. Probably more like 1.065.
My original plan was also have blueberries in this. just decided at the last minute I would add them in secondary later. Now I'm wondering if I am going to get any blackberry flavor at all. I'm also considering using a different yeast in the future. I think I would be happy with something around 10-12% ABV.
Thank you again for taking the time to help me out. I appreciate it.
@@jonathanmcneill4993 Wow this was a great thread to learn from. Thank you for posting this. ✌😁✌
@@hbg8683 Most welcome! I have started casually going through a Reddit group called /mead and it's nice too if you are looking for more sources. I've been following City Steading for a few years now and really like this place for information.
@@jonathanmcneill4993 Amanda and I have some wild blackberries on our land, and this fall, we harvested a bunch and tried our first-ever wine. I have played around with mash for moonshine but never wine. So I did not get any SP readings until it had stopped fermenting with an SP of 0.000. We back-sweetened it to 1.050 for one batch and the other batch to 1.030. We then let them set for 14 days, and the SP had not changed, so we bottled them. We are very pleased with our first attempt at wine and have tried a troublesome watermelon wine.
So how do you know what you want your starting gravity to be? I think I understand but just want to be sure.
By figuring out where you want it to end. Assuming it goes dry, using the formula (og-fg)x135=ABV, you can get an idea of where it will end up and gauge your yeast tolerance against that, helps you to know where to start.
Thanks, just watched another couple videos of yours and I'm thinking right on my original thought process. You guys are awesome, keep up the fun work!
Yesterday in the ER, I found out that my urine has a specific gravity of 1.050, which is completely normal! 😂
1.010 or below and your kidneys are most likely toast. SG testing for urine determines whether the kidneys are concentrating as the fluid passes through them. Happy urinating 😂. Hope your ER visit was uneventful.
I used 71b for first time an gave me 15.72 abv
Yep… it routinely goes past its tolerance!
Agave syrup?? I see someone else asked but don’t see an answer yet. 🙏🙏
czcams.com/video/NHZfXCykCJk/video.htmlsi=ZJGiONio1-srOJfF
What’s the difference between methaglyn and acerglyn. Yeah my spelling is bad , I get it ha ha ha on me. But should get it
Metheglyn is spices and honey, acerglyn is maple syrup and honey.
Hi Brian I think 2 years ago or so you mentioned you are writing a book about home brewing? Not gonna ask an author when you are done 🤣 but gonna ask are you still working on it or is the project dead?
I started it. Never finished. At some point I intend to pick the project up again.
Here's a wrench into the works: canned fruit, especially when you dump the syrup in with it.
Corn syrup... not tue best taste when fermented, but it does work.
@@CitySteadingBrews I misspoke, my specific example is canned peaches in pear juice. The usual ascorbic acid. I was thinking of adding after the must finished fermenting. I can't wrap my head around what will happen. Maybe ferment more or just end up peachy sweet if I leave it in. The consistency? Who knows. I may just have to go for it to see.
That would depend on if your brew has passed the alcohol tolerance of the yeast.
@@CitySteadingBrews my SG was 1.060, honey and water. I used EC 1118. I believe I will get some more ferment out of the fruit.
could u please come over to the dark side and use the metric haha. pounds and gallons making my heat spin.
Perspective… why cant you switch to our way? I mean… it’s what everyone in our area uses. It’s how all our vessels and supplies are sold. You should just switch to what WE do.
See how silly that sounds? It’s like language. We speak English. Some people don’t. Should we switch to their language even though all we are surrounded with is English?
I will totally concede the metric system is better, but it makes no sense for us to abandon what is used where we live.
Also! The vast majority of our audience is American and use the same system as us.
@@CitySteadingBrews dont know why u got so defensive. about it. i was just kidding. But sure if u want an argument. USA is on metric. but not in public. pretty much every science lab and buisness in usa thats have international tradings like in STEAM are on metric . And i thought u would like to have more subs and more viewers.
and since pretty much the entire world have English as a second language its much easier for english speaking people to get a bigger audience and reach out to more people.
Tale pewdiepie for example- Dp i reaööu think he would have 111mn subs if he spoke Swedish in hes vids?
Anyway i was just sarcastic didnt actually demanding from u to change.
Text has no tone… we get literally told to switch a dozen times a day. Sorry if I took your comment as serious.
@@CitySteadingBrews its ok.
One thing u could do that ive seen alot of other channels does is that u can say everething in imperial but when u do u could edit in a conversion box on screen to metric so all the international viewers can follow along. That way u still get a flow in your speach while recording and dont have to think about it and when u editing u can just convert it and add it in. Just a tip.
I really like your channel and the content is great.
I just started a Welch's concord grape juice wine. The juice was concord grape juice, citric acid. No sugars added tested 1.059 with hydrometer an 1.060 by eye glass. Brain dead for tool name. Ha ha.
??? I am using Tamarind nectar in the 1.4 northern big mouth. The tamarind is 38 grams of sugar per leader. How much honey would you recommend.?
I don't actually have a tamarind mead recipe. 38 grams per liter isn't much. No idea how much you are making so it's really hard to tell you a volume of honey. Usually 2-3 lbs per gallon works, but I like to use specific gravity readings. 1.080-1.100 is a good starting range.
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you I'll play with it to get the 1.100
you are using terms gallon and pound.. in india here we use liter and kg.. that is more confusing when watchting your videos... please do something...
We use gallons and pounds because that's what people in our area use. You can go on Google and do a conversion if you need to. In our area, we don't use liters and kg, so we use what is native to our area, just like you do.
@@CitySteadingBrews yes.. doing conversions when needed.. besides this getting lot of information and basics cleared through your videos.. thank you for that..
1 liter of water = 1 kg
1 pint of water = 1 pound
1 gallon = 8 pounds
So, if you were making an 8 liter batch, you should be able to use the same ratios of sugar to gallon that are discussed.
Much like baking, the ratio of ingredients seems more important than the specific unit of measurement used
@@apollohateshisdayjob9606that’s a really confusing way of explaining it. So you are basically saying people who struggle to convert can only make 8L batches? When our fermenters come in 5L sizes 😂
@@kunalhallale608the US write it as lb/gal for their numbers. I use g/L. So for sugar 100g in a 1litre of must gives 1.039 points. 100g of honey in 1L of must gives 1.031. Does that help?
Another winner here, one thing you missed though, WHAT should the target starting gravity goal be? I get all the measuring, fruit etc and difference betweens.... But in the end, shouldn't there be a goal for a SG? LIke too high and the yeast will just stall? Too low and you don't get much of anything? Ranges needed for where the staring target point should be.
That being asked, I have to say, since starting to follow your videos I have made MANY MANY gallons of brews now. NOT ONE ever came out aweful. Sometimes (most times) mine run dry, sometimes SO dry I either use them to cut back one that went too sweet, or just put some honey in a cup then add wine. But it's rare that it gets to the peel paint level.
PS did the shiso I sent you survive the trip?
There is no perfect starting gravity... it varies. The shiso did not survive... thank you for trying though!
@@CitySteadingBrews Awwwww darn on the shiso. Oh well. Maybe you can find it in some market somewhere, probably an asian one. It's worth trying. Shucks. I didn't even have enough left to do a brew this year. But it will spread. Got some mint taking off in another area so there's that.
And I swear bottled juice, sugar, yeast, win win every time. Welches grape makes a darn tasty wine. And there is a blueberry/blackberry/asci juice that also does fantastic. (That one takes forever, yeast seem VERY happy to live on in that one for some reason. Takes twice as long as everything else.)
Anyway thanks again for all you guys do.
i know it's possible to "brew" almost anything....but i have 15 pounds of cut up cantaloupe and i don't want to toss it and it'll go bad before i can eat it all......is it possible to make a "tasteful" brew out of melon?
Hi Chuck. I know this will not serve your purpose as it is almost a year later, but this summer, my wife and I had a great crop of watermelons and cantaloupes. We tried a watermelon wine. We juiced watermelon, made 1.5 gallons of juice and 0.5 gallons of water, and added 4 lbs of white sugar, giving an OG of 1.100. I added a pouch of turbo yeast and let it set for 14 days until the action stopped for a couple of days. The FG was 0.990. I added 1 lb of white sugar to backsweeten, bringing the SP to 1.040. I checked the SP 14 days later, and it was still 1.040. It has a twang to it that I am not happy with. I have racked them into two one-gallon jars and allowed them to age slightly. Every month or so I take a taste and see, but it not really going anywhere. I may end up dumping it in with a mash and stripping it out.