How the Sugar Meter Works and How to Use the Meter
Principle of Hydrometer/Saccharimeter
The principle of hydrometer is the same as that of sugar meter. They measure the specific gravity of a specific solution by the height at which it floats in the solution. However, the units of sugar meter and hydrometer are different.
The estimation formula of the unit: [(specific gravity-1)*1000]/4=saccharide
For example, the specific gravity of wort is 1.040. According to the conversion formula, the sugar content is approximately equal to 10p. What is measured is the relative density, which is the density of the solution relative to water. The specific gravity of water is 1.000. The reading is quoted at the standard temperature (20 degrees Celsius) of the liquid. Density and temperature are related, so the hydrometer reading should be corrected to the specific gravity at standard temperature.
Use of hydrometer/saccharimeter
Since the uses of the two are very similar, we take the sugar meter as an example. According to the principle of the sugar meter, we know that the reading of the sugar meter needs to be measured at the standard temperature, so we can use a sugar meter with an attached temperature, so that if the temperature is not 20°C, the temperature can be directly compensated.
The temperature-attached sugar meter measurement is a float meter, which is made based on the principle of a liquid density meter. The smaller the relative density of the liquid, the deeper the density meter sinks. The thin stem of the sugar meter has a mass percent scale engraved on it.
(1) Cleaning of the sugar meter. The sugar meter should be cleaned with the wort to be measured. It should not be washed with water or other liquids to avoid changes in the concentration of the wort and to obtain as accurate a measurement result as possible. In the same way, the spiral stirring rod used to mix the wort temperature in the measuring cylinder evenly must also be rinsed with the wort being measured.
(2) Cooling of wort. Take a small amount of wort and place it in a metal cylinder. There is a metal cooling jacket outside the metal cylinder, which can cool the wort to about 20℃, because the sugar meter is calibrated at 20℃. Of course, when cooling, it is necessary to ensure that the wort cannot be diluted and to avoid an increase in concentration caused by the evaporation of water in the wort.
(3) Reading of the sugar meter. Carefully hold the upper end of the sugar meter and slowly place it on the scale of the estimated value. Wait for a moment. After the sugar meter is stable, read the thin tube from the convex scale where the wort is in contact with the sugar meter. display value.
Then check the correction value corresponding to the temperature scale in the lower half of the sugar meter. If the measured wort temperature is higher than 20°C, add the correction value to the sugar meter display value; if it is lower than 20°C, add the sugar meter display value. Subtract the correction value. For example, if the accuracy meter reading is 11.6°P and the correction value at 20°C is 0.2°P, then the wort concentration is 11.6-0.2=11.4°P, that is, at 20°C, 100kg of the wort contains 11.4kg leachate.
Note: Although the attached thermosaccharimeter has temperature compensation, temperature compensation requires time and the temperature should not be too high. It is recommended that the wort temperature should be controlled at around 20°C when measuring.
At the same time, when measuring the fermentation broth, the carbon dioxide in the fermentation broth must be removed, otherwise it will have a lot of impact on the measurement results.
