Stevenson Reeves Specific Gravity Hydrometer (S1500) - For Home Brewing And Winemaking, Glass, 230mm

I am not a master brewer so I can't confirm the accuracy of this. I purchased it as a way to figure the alcoholic content of some ginger beer and it seems to work. It arrived quickly and the paper sheet inside has a table of information that you can use for the calculations and is very handy, although you need to keep it some place safe as it is stored inside the tube.The tube is plastic but quite sturdy and balances well, although I do suggest securing it to prevent it topping over (learnt that the hard way).The numbers on the hydrometer itself are clear to read and quite large, it's had a couple of knocks and hasn't broken yet.

For the price (about £5 prime) and speedy delivery this has been a great bit of kit for my first ventures into home brew. Reading is easy - using the supplied test tube (which also doubles as it protective case - why not? it does the job fine) to hold your sample, drop in the hydro and let it settle to see where the level is and this provides original gravity prior to fermentation. Take samples during fermentation which should reveal a reduction in gravity indicating sugars being fermented to alcohol. When fermentation appears to be finished take another sample and (depending on what you are brewing) close to 1000 would indicate its done. The difference between the original gravity and the final specific gravity will allow you to calculate the alcohol content of the fermented brew.

I've used this make and model of hydrometer for the last thirty or so batches of mead that I have made, and whilst I initially thought it was just a good bog standard hydrometer, some odd numbers made me buy a second hydrometer (same make and model) just to check that they were coming to the same value. They were not: One was coming to 1.008 (in 5C soft water); whilst the other was coming to 0.998 (in 5C soft water).Both were wrong, and poorly calibrated.Because of that, I cannot recommend this product unless you are confident in testing the calibration yourself first and then adjusting all values accordingly.

I like this hydrometer because it is easy to use. It does every expected. Highly recommended.

Worked great. Just don't put hot wort into the measuring tube and expect it to stay the same shape afterwards, its not pyrex after all. I say this through experience... The hydrometer itself is fine.

Great hydrometer. I use mine for beer but the gravity range is sufficient for wine making. I struggle to read the markings but when used in a trial jar and a good set of reading glasses appears to be accurate.

I’m very pleased that it didn’t break during transport. I haven’t tested it yet but it seems great quality. Thank you!

Easy to use and records that tap water has a specific gravity of 1 (which it has), so at this point on the scale the accuracy is perfect. I believe you could add a specified quantity of NaCl (salt) to a specified volume of water to produce a solution with a calculable specific gravity to use as a control solution to test the other end of the scale - but it's really not that critical and it's not worth the effort.