I'm fermenting my first wine from crushing actual grapes. How much does the pulp and skin in the must affect the OG? I thought I should be testing the juice itself as much as possible so I poured my sample through a sanitized coarse strainer to remove as much pulp and skins as possible. It occurred to me afterwards that there must be additional sugars in the pulp so how does that affect OG? I'm mainly concerned that my chaptalization calcs may be off and I added too much sugar.
Question on OG for wine must.
- Thread starter HCWHunter
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If you hydrometer isn't sitting on chunks of must, your reading should be pretty accurate.
I probably should have compared readings with and w/o pulp & skins in the samples. I'm not that worried since my target ABV was only 12.5 - 13% (depending on F.G.) but am really curious as to how the pulp & skins affect O.G. If it turns out a little bit higher ABV, so be it.
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I'm sure you're fine.
Think of the must as a pool of water that you're swimming in.
If there are leaves in the water, you still float the same.
Now if you're standing in a mid bottom you might be a bit higher in the water.
Make sense?
Think of the must as a pool of water that you're swimming in.
If there are leaves in the water, you still float the same.
Now if you're standing in a mid bottom you might be a bit higher in the water.
Make sense?
Well, I understand your analogy, however I'm not sure it works since the object isn't just the floating of the person or tool. The floating of the tool is intended to measure dissolved solids which may or may not be present in the pool. I agree that the floating leaves are like floating skins and pulp, but the leaves don't have sugar inside them.
In the end, the SG measurement is just going to be an approximation of the sugar available for fermentation and will be close enough for homebrewing purposes.
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The hydrometer measures sugar via the density, so it's going to be pretty accurate if the grapes are crushed- think of it like a washing machine where there are clothes and things, but the water and amount of detergent is pretty equal throughout. It's not like sugar hangs around in grape skins and not in the must. It'd different if the grapes aren't crushed, of course, but in a crushed fruit must, the SG is pretty accurate.
I thought some more about your analogy and it makes more sense now. If it were a salt water pool, I would be more buoyant due to the salt in the water. The leaves would be soaked in salt water too but they wouldn't affect my buoyancy!
Thanks,
HW
