Page:A Practical Treatise on Brewing (4th ed.).djvu/73

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SACCHAROMETER.
57

The Saccharometer sanctioned by government, is that constructed by Mr. Bates, which shows the specific gravity of the worts, as compared with water at unity, or 1000; thus progressing to 1020, 40, 60, 80, to 1140, which is quite enough for the specific gravity of worts, for beer of every description. Richardson’s instrument shows the increase of weight of the worts according to the actual number of pounds of saccharine matter, held in solution by the said worts. For instance, if 50 lbs. specific gravity by Bates’s or Allan’s instruments were held in solution by the worts, thirty pounds of water would be displaced. Hence Bates’s or Allan’s instruments would show 50 lbs. per barrel, while Richardson’s would show about 18.3; the difference being as 1 to 2.78.

Long has invented an instrument with only one weight; one side of the stem without any weight, indicating to the extent of 25 or 26 lbs. gravity; the other with the weight, going to the extent of 50 or 52 lbs. gravity. We would, however, recommend the instruments made by him on the late Mr. Richardson’s principle, as being much less liable to error than those having so many pounds indicated on one stem. The indications, however, of any Saccharometer, if accurate, may be easily compared and reduced to the scale of others by recollecting that the saccharometer indicating specific gravity per barrel, is founded on the fact that a barrel of