On Jan 30, 5:21*pm, Wayne Harris wrote:
Being a Newbie, *I have thousands of questions.

Right now my question is about measuring sugar.

I understand SG, how to use a Hydrometer, and how to calculate ABV.

I also understand the BRIX to SG relationships. *Brix=261.3*(1 - 1/
sg),

But degrees Brix and SG seem to accomplish much the same tasks. They
both seem to be methods for measuring sugar in suspension in liquid.
And from this, you can calculate several things, and you can time
various winemaking steps.

As a new winemaker, *my instinct says to learn to both methods of
measurement and both scales, but to be honest, i don't know why. While
a hydrometer reads SG and a refractometer reads degrees Brix, to me,
they are both indicators of the same thing.

So, what method should i use?

You can use any method you prefer. There are others apart from Brix
and SG, for example, Baume and Oechsle, but they all do pretty much
the same thing. Practically, you might have to translate from one
scale to another at times, but you can use an inexpensive triple scale
hydrometer for that.

One thing though - you can't use the Brix scale on a refractometer
directly to measure the progress of fermentation because alcohol
skewes the values. Use the hydrometer for that purpose.

Pp