My pleasure :). Good luck with the wine 🍷👍

+Ray Green dude yes! Good points!

+BigEdsGuns dude! Yes! That's a great tip, wish I had of included that one. Thanks man!

+Lindsay L sweet.....guess I should do a refractometer video first. Then compare.

Thanks mate

+Bearded & Bored thanks man :) . . . . Will see what I can do !

I use a refractometer I find it a lot easier to use once you've calibrated it 2 temperature

Troy West i

Agreed my man. I always preferred refractometers for home brewing. It's awesome being able to take super quick samples and not cool things down while mashing. But I find my self using the hydrometer more often for distilling stuff.

+Eric Kidd unfortunately no. Before fermentation you are dealing with a sugar and warer solution which is relatively dense. After distilling the water alcohol solution is much much less dense. So you need to be measuring at two ends of the scale basically. So refractometer for pre distilling, alcometer for after. Likely a decent idea to get a set of three to be more precise.

Thank you for the help my friend you're doing awesome

any time :)

Yeah I think you are right. It will effect gravity a little.

+Nuntius01 thanks man.

A refractometer😛

@@oilpond thank you!!

Its definitely worth using my man.

Thanks for the interesting discussion about this! Made me think a bit there haha

@@StillIt My refractometer should be here tomorrow. I'll keep you posted on my findings. Also, now I know the proper way to pronounce hydrometer. it's not Hi-dro-meter it's hi-drom-eter. Damn American's. Haha

@@KombuchaLiz It's not strictly an American thing. In my experience it has more to do with a persons level of education and whether or not they were sufficiently exposed to proper scientific terminology.

@@jcast25 Thank you. It was really just a joke.

Nice! That stuff looks awesome. Off the top of my head that sounds about right mate.

Thank you sir you ever got gunsmith blacksmith tree surgeon questions let me know :-)

I may just take you up on that ;)

Thanks for the link man. Will check that out! I have heard multiple people say "the hydrometer will not be accurate" for a wash with unfermentable sugars. I'm assuming when distillers say this it's because they mean the potential ABV% is not going to be right? It just sounds VERY strange to a brewer. As we deal with this for every brew. ( OG - FG ) * 131.25 = ABV Guess it's just a difference between the hobbies and ways people use tools. haha. Thanks for the link man. Will check that out!

You're welcome. The reason is a hydrometer works by measuring the gravity of a liquid compared to distilled water. So if we now take a liquid that is a solution of different components, we would have altered the density compared to that water. If that liquid still contains sugar compounds the yeast wasn't able to convert into alcohol, it would be denser. That's what happens with the molasses in a rum wash. So that means the reading on the hydrometer would be off and we will not be able to determine the potential ABV of that liquid. If it's a heavy molasses wash, it may almost seem like there hasn't been any fermentation going at all i.e. a stalled wash. A lot of people also ask, why they should buy a relatively expensive hydrometer when they could get a cheap one for measuring salt in an aquarium? Well, that particular one is calibrated to a specific salt content mixed in the water and we won't have any salt involved in the fermentation, hence it would not measure correctly as salt water is denser than unsalted. When one ferment said rum wash (or similar) one can calculate the potential ABV, though. If my memory serves me right there is a calculator for that in the link I posted. Another solution would be a refractometer, but it's also more expensive. I found a few from China on E-bay for a very fortunate price and the one I got is accurate enough, though.

Yeah that's exactly what I was talking about :) I guess its because distillers often use the potential ABV scale huh? The way people say "the hydrometer wont work" is what throws brewers. Because they use a hydrometer/refractometer in "dose not work" conditions every single time. The hydrometer works perfectly. It tells you the density of the liquid. You can't, however, assume that everything dissolved in that liquid is fermentable. I think it'shat Brewers almost NEVER use a potential ABV scale. As we ALWAYS assume that there will be unfermentable sugars in the wort. Brewers will almost always work of OG + assumed attenuation (based on yeast type, grist and mash temp) to attempt to predict FG. OG + predicted FG allow you to then calculate predicted ABV. Actual ABV is calculated from OG and actual FG. Its literally exactly the same thing. Its just that using the potential ABV scale on a hydrometer makes an assumption (that everything in solution is fermentable). Using OG + FG lets you adjust your predictions based on what you know about the solution.

I don't often use the potential ABV..if..it's only a guideline for me. I stick to some standard recipes I refined over time, "tried & true". For example, cheap sugar washes with some tomato paste and dead yeast sediment from a previous ferment when I want neutral spirit. The paste and the sediment are nutrients for the newly pitched yeast , as yeast are cannibalistic..lol. For experimental ferments, however, the potential ABV comes handy...but again it's only an assumption that all the sugar is converted into alcohol (s). The ferment should be "fermented dry" i.e. it doesn't taste sweet anymore and the bubbling reaction has come to an end. It's definitely an advantage to be familiar with brewing when it comes to fermentation of AG for Whisky. It's essential to know about starch conversion etc to get a quality end product. Again a hydrometer won't be any good for determining the potential ABV if a full conversion hasn't taken place.

Cheers mate, The suggestion for beersmith was for the all grain side of things :)

Good idea

Yeah good rtequest. I will put it on the list :)

. . . .. how many is "so many"?

D'OH!

+InglisHill yeah I do think of them as the same thing. And I would argue they are. But I totally agree that this could cause confusion for people that are new to brewing or distilling. Especially without any background and/or interest in science. .........good excuse to do a follow up :)