Product Spotlight: Triple Scale Hydrometer
A Triple Scale Hydrometer is a winemaking instrument used to measure the progress of fermentation and determine the alcohol percentage it will yield.
How does it work?
The Triple Scale Hydrometer measures the density of a liquid in relation to water. In winemaking, you are measuring how much sugar is in the wine. The more sugar that is in the wine, the high the hydrometer will float. As fermentation proceeds and sugar turns in to alcohol, the hydrometer will slowly sink. When fermentation is complete the hydrometer will stop sinking.
How do I read it?
Triple Scale Hydrometers have their name because they indeed have 3 scales. The 3 scales are Specific Gravity, Brix, and Potential Alcohol.
Specific Gravity – is the ratio of the density of a liquid to the density of water. In winemaking, as you add sugar, the specific gravity increases. It indicates the amount of fermentable sugar or potential alcohol in the wine.
Brix – the measurement of the sugar content in grapes, must, and wine. This indicates the ripeness of the grapes at harvest. To get an alcohol conversion, multiple your Brix by .55.
Potential Alcohol – the total measurement of the alcohol that wine may contain, once fermentation is complete. This includes the levels of glucose and fructose. The levels of each will enable the winemaker to determine the conversion rate of sugar into alcohol.
How do I use it?
Place a sample of your wine into a test tube. You can use a wine thief to retrieve the wine from your vessel easily. Place the hydrometer into the test tube filled with wine. It will take a moment for it to stop spinning and moving around. Once it becomes still, record the data from each scale. It is a good idea to do this when you receive your must or juice so that you have your starting numbers. It is always a great idea to track your process for any future possible issues, or if your wine comes out amazing and you’d like to repeat the steps again for your next batch of wine.
Where can I buy one?Â
You can buy your Triple Scale Hydrometer here. Musto Wine Grape is here for you and all of your winemaking needs. From equipment to customer support, we’re here to help you make the wine of your dreams. For any questions email sales@juicegrape.com or call (877) 812 – 1137 to speak with someone to get you started!
Musto’s Wine Analysis Services
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering…
- How do I get accurate numbers on my wine samples?
- Can I trust the readings I’m getting?
- How do I even do this test?!
…fear not! Musto Wine Grape Company can happily assist you with all of your wine analysis needs.
Samples to be tested – a truly beautiful sight!
What analyses do we offer?
- Brix, pH, TA
- Free and/or total SO2
- Alcohol
- MLF
- YAN
- Sensory analysis
Why is analysis important?
- Knowing the Brix, pH, and TA of your juice sample is the most important first step pre-fermentation. Depending on these numbers you may need to acidulate (add acid) or ameliorate (add water) to your must or juice before initiating fermentation.
- SO2 levels will indicate how well protected your wine is. You may need to add more or less depending upon the reading.
- Alcohol % (ABV) is an important number to confirm, especially if looking to confirm the final number for a wine label.
- The presence of malolactic bacteria will indicate whether or not MLF has completed in your wine.
- YAN numbers will tell you the amount of yeast assimilable nitrogen levels will help you decide how much nitrogen/nutrients you may want to add throughout the alcoholic fermentation.
- Sensory analysis entails our highly knowledgeable and skilled staff conducting a taste test on your samples. This is especially helpful if you are looking to see how to improve upon your current wine, or how to sharpen your winemaking skills for future vintages.
pH and TA are important numbers to know as they will affect the entire winemaking process from start to finish
Interested in getting your wines analyzed at our lab?
Great! There’s one of two ways to get your samples to us:
- Drop by to say hello and give them to us directly. You can fill out a lab analysis form from our website to bring in with you.
- Send them in with the above lab analysis form. Be sure to include all of your contact information!
Acid titration
Any other questions? Give us a call at 860-278-7703. We’re always happy to help you make your wine the best it can be!
Winemaker Lab Skills Class – October 9th
Musto’s Winemaker Lab Skills Class will be held on Wednesday October 9th at 7:00PM.
Want clarification on TA, pH, and Adjusting Your Wine?
Then this is the class for you!
Professor Frank Renaldi will go over the following lab skills every winemaker needs. It can be difficult to feel comfortable testing your wine. However, Frank has some easy tricks and tips of how to test and adjust your wine.
Class Outline:
- Equipment & Supplies
- Volume Measurements
- Sugar, Content, & Adjustments
- Acidity, Content, & Adjustments
- pH
- Sulfites, Need, & Adjustments
- Blending
- MLF
- Sugar Addition
Sign up today and start sharpening your Winemaker Lab Skills!
Sign up via the website HERE or give us a call at 877-812-1137 to sign up over the phone. We look forward to seeing you in class. Cheers!
The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 31 – How do I bring down my Brix?
What’s the Winemaker’s Think Tank?
Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂
How do I bring down my Brix?
                 Sometimes the beautiful California weather can ripen our wine grapes a little too much, sending sugar levels very high. Any grapes with an initial Brix reading over 28 degrees, should be considered high and a winemaker must use caution when fermenting them. The sugars are fermented into alcohol, so many home winemakers think “I will just have a nice strong wine”. While this is correct, the high alcohol levels can lead to a stuck fermentation as the accumulating alcohol levels will begin to kill the yeast. It is very important when selecting your yeast strain, to make sure that is has an alcohol tolerance high enough to handle the sugar in the grapes. You can figure out the end alcohol by volume by multiplying the initial Brix level by .55. Make sure the yeast can handle this end ABV. Another factor to consider is the balance of the wine. Having a very high alcohol content (>14%) can lead to a burning sensation upon ingestion and some off flavors in the wine.
                 Now that we have covered why you may want to bring down your Brix levels, now how does one go about it? You can add water, but because water has a neutral pH, you must add acidulated water as to not bring down the pH of the juice. If your grape must has a pH of 3.6, you must add 3.4g/L of tartaric acid to the water to lower its pH to make it the same strength as the wine must. Then how much water to add? Use the Pearson’s Square formula of the desired amount being equal to the volume of juice in liters multiplied by the desired brix minus the actual brix then divided by the brix of water (zero) minus the desired Brix.
                 In example, if you have a 5 gallon batch of juice at 28 degrees Brix and would like to add water to bring it to 24 degrees Brix, first convert the gallons to liters by multiplying by 3.78 L/gal. This gives you 18.9 liters. Minus the desired Brix of 24 from the actual Brix of 28, to give -4. Multiply the volume by the -4 to give -75.6. Then take the Brix of the additive (water which is zero) and subtract from that the desired Brix of 24. This will give you -24. Then the volume needed is simply -75.6/-24, which gives you 3.15. You would need to add 3.15 liters of water to reduce your Brix from 28 to 24.
We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.
Numbers from Washington State as of 9/14/17
Numbers are of 9/14/17
Pinot – 22.5 Brix, 3.3 pH
Merlot – 22 Brix, 3.47 pH
Cab Sauv – 20 Brix, 3.4 pH
Cab Franc – 19 Brix, 3.42 pH
The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 27- What are Brix?
What’s the Winemaker’s Think Tank?
Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂
What are Brix?
Brix is the unit of measurement of the sugar content within fruit, and specifically to winemaking, grapes. One degree Brix is equal to 1 gram of sucrose within 100 grams (100ml) of liquid. The average Brix level for grapes is between 20-30.
We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.
The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 17 – Should I Add Sugar?
What’s the Winemaker’s Think Tank?
Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂
Do I add sugar?
Adding sugar can fall into two categories. If sugar is added prior to fermentation, it is called chapitalization and will increase the Brix (sugar level) of the must, resulting in a higher alcohol by volume wine. The yeast will process this sugar in addition to the grape sugars and will turn it into alcohol. Chapitalization is an important step for under ripe grapes, lacking in sugar.
Another form of sugar addition to wine is post-fermentation. This must be done with much care as to not restart fermentation. Adding the sugar after fermentation may reactivate yeast by offering them another food source and cause them to ferment that sugar as well. This can be prevented by adding sulfites to at least 50ppm to kill off the yeast. Adding sugar after sulfites will effectively back sweeten the wine, giving residual sugar and a sweet flavor to the wine. The winemaker can also add potassium sorbate to the wine, provided that the wine has not gone through malo-lactic fermentation. Potassium sorbate cannot be added to a wine that has undergone MLF as it will result in an off aroma of geranium taint. Potassium sorbate is strongly suggested for white wines that the winemaker would like to add residual sugar to. The sorbate will encapsulate any yeast particles, prohibiting them from metabolizing the sugar that was added for sweetening.
We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.
Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Malbec Numbers
Hello Winemakers!
We hope everything is fermenting along well! Below are some numbers were able to take on the grapes yesterday. Cheers and Happy Fermenting! 🙂
pH= 3.55, TA= 4.27, Brix 21.5
pH= 3.85, TA= 3.31, Brix =23.5
pH= 3.95, TA = 4.25, Brix = 23.2
The Winemaker’s Think Tank: Vol 2 – What do I need to get started making wine with fresh juice?
The Winemaker’s Think Tank?Â
Every Thursday we will post about a few frequently asked questions that our winemaker has answered. If you have a winemaking question you would like to have answered, please email us at support@juicegrape.com and we will try to get into next week’s post. Cheers! 🙂
What do I need to get started making wine with fresh juice?
When elevating your winemaking to the next level, often sourcing the best ingredients is the most direct path to better results. After getting great base experience using wine kits, the next logical step to wine making greatness is fresh juice. When making this change from wine kits to fresh juice, other ingredients may be needed to ensure the juice will reach its greatest potential as wine. First, evaluate your juice for acid (pH) and sugar (Brix). What are the levels present in your juice? If the Brix level is below 20, you may consider adding sugar to increase the Brix levels to 24-26. What is the pH of the wine? Juice should have a pH greater than 3.1 to ensure a successful fermentation. If the pH is higher than 3.8, consider adding tartaric acid. This will ensure a better tasting wine after fermentation as well as a more stable wine.
The next area to consider is yeast. Certain strains of yeast will amplify certain traits within the finished product of wine such as fruit character, spice notes, or floral notes. The yeast has certain parameters that it will ferment best within, so consult a winemaking expert at Musto Wine Grape to help you select the best yeast strain for your wine. The yeast is the important catalyst that will process the grape juice into wine. The yeast will need certain nutrients to best assist it with its fermentation such as a rehydration nutrient like Go Ferm, and subsequent nutrients to finish out the fermentation process such as Fermaid O and Fermaid K. Musto Wine Grape stocks yeast along with all of the aforementioned nutrients in small packages, designed for the individual buckets of juice. This will give you perfectly measured amounts of products to add to your wine, making proper fermentation simple and with no wasted/unused product.
We hope this information helps with your winemaking. If you have any follow up questions or winemaking questions in general, please email us at support@juicegrape.com.Â
Mini Harvest Report
It looks like Mother Nature is excited to get her winemaking on because the grapes are ripening early and fast! Download our E-Book for the ENTIRE list of wine grapes and juices we will be bringing in this fall HERE –>Â MWG_2016 Harvest Menu E-Book
Mini Harvest Report:
Central Valley & Lodi: Brix are in the high teens. We are expecting to have grapes in Hartford, CT as early as September 7th.
Suisun Valley, Paso Robles, Contra Costa, Amador, Sonoma, and Napa: The whites will be harvest on September 1st and should be to Hartford, CT on September 7th. The red grapes are maturing well. The Brix are creeping up there. We think that we are still on track for a September 15th harvest date, with the grapes arriving in Hartford, CT as early as September 20th.
Juices: California juices will start arriving on September 7th. We hope to see the Italian juices sometime in the first week of October.
Prices: The grape and juice prices will be available by August 16th. Please give us a call at the office to secure your order.
We look forward to working with you this fall. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us at 877.812.1137 or sales@juicegrape.com
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