Homemade

Guide to Homemade Wine, Beer, Cider & Mead

Alcoholic beverages; commonly beer and wines and made at home. Most often brews are made from brewing kits purchased at shops specialized in spirits. Cheap Draft features homebrew recipes, equipment requirements, and best practices needed to deliver the perfect batch!

Those using the hydrometer may take the reading when all fermentation has ceased to check the amount of alcohol made. Those starting off with a gravity of 1.110 or below should end with a reading of 1.000 or less. Those beginning with a reading above 1.110, will find that the figure above this will still register on the hydrometer. For example, if they began with a reading of 1.120, they should end up with a reading of 1.010. This is because sugar representing 110 degrees on the hydrometer has been fermented out. In this case, the resulting mead is of 14.5% of alcohol by volume with sugar representing 10 degrees on the hydrometer left unfermented to sweeten the mead slightly. The same will apply to all readings above the 1.110 figure.

Note. Many people are puzzled when diluting honey after taking the reading with a hydrometer. One person wrote that they had a mixture of honey and water with a specific gravity of 1.180. He wanted to reduce this to make two gallons with a reading of 1.090. In other words he wanted a bone-dry mead of 11.9% of alcohol by volume. But, he wrote, ’surely in making this up to two gallons I shall reduce the reading to ‘590?’ The point overlooked here, of course, was that the water he would have added already has the gravity of 1.000. Therefore, no matter how much water he added, the reading would not go below 1.000. He had overlooked that the figures above the 1.000 mark are all we are concerned with as it is these that record the amount of sugar in the mixture. In his case, if he had done as he wanted to he would have done the right thing, for he would have reduced the reading of .180 - the reading above the 1.000 which represented the sugar content of his mixture - to the figure 1.090. The fact that his hydrometer would record a reading of 1.0g0 is because the water in the mixture has the gravity of 1.000. To make it even more simple, look at it this way -

Water – 1.000
Sugar 90
Specific Gravity - 1.090 or total gravity of mixture.

Certain operators using the hydrometer, like to use enough honey to give a reading of 1.100 and to ferment this, as they know that this is the best figure to start with. I do recommend this for it will be found that whichever yeast is used, it will ferment much better when not too much sugar is present. The reading of 1.100 is the best to use as this ensures that the yeast action is not impeded and that maximum alcohol will be obtained. This means, of course, that unless more honey or sugar is added, the mead will be dry. But because the yeast does better when less sugar is present, more sugar or honey may be added after some of the sugar already there has been used up.

Therefore, always start off with a gravity of 1.100 and add sugar or honey representing the figure above this after say five or six days fermentation. Sugar is best for this later addition as it is easier to calculate how much to use. ~t oz. will raise the gravity of one gallon by five degrees; 5 oz. will raise it ten degrees. Therefore, if you want to start with a gravity of 1.110, start, actually, with a reading of 1.100 and add five ounces of sugar later on. Ten ounces added after starting with a gravity of 1.100 will have the effect of having started with a reading of 1.120. These points are made for those who will want to make less dry or sweet meads.