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chojo

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Ok so based on the school of thought that the longer you leave things the better, i left my wows in the shed for a few months in the demi john (ok so i forgot about them again) today i went to bottle them and thought i'd check the abv, and to my surprise it's 1.000 which is the same as my tap water give or take. Have i done something wrong or do i need a new hydrometer? Both wows one made with wgj with apple and elderflower and one is rgj with pomegranate. Any ideas?
 
that isn't abv that's SG which is the specific gravity of the water. 1.000 means that there is no sugar left.
 
sam.k said:
that isn't abv that's SG which is the specific gravity of the water. 1.000 means that there is no sugar left.

There will be sugar left at 1.000. Whether it is fermentable or not is another question. Alcohol is thinner than water, which means there would need to be something else in the wine to 'bring' the reading back up to 1.000 - sugars, for example.
 
Your hydrometer doesn't tell you alcohol level but measures the density of the liquid (in gravity points e.g. 1045), this is affected by the amount of sugars dissolved in it.

You should have tested you wine before fermenting (original gravity) and then again at the end (final gravity)...you then take your two readings and use a calculator such as the one in the top left of the forum HERE to calculate the final ABV...hope that explains things :thumb:
 
:doh: I knew that. Thanks for reminding me i'm a complete idiot, every now and then i have a brain fart this is one of those days.
 
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