One of the challenges of fermenting your wine in a carboy is taking readings with a hydrometer. If you were using a pale or bucket to ferment in, then taking a reading would not be an issue. All you would have to do is put the gravity hydrometer in the wine and see how high or low it is floating.
But when the wine is in a wine carboy, you can put the hydrometer in the carboy, but you’ll have a hard time getting it back out. Your only other option is to siphon some of the wine out of the carboy, enough to get a reading, and then put the wine back in the carboy, but this is just as much as a hassle as it sounds.
That’s why we offer what’s called The Fermentation Sampler. It acts like a wine thief, allowing you to pull a sample out of the wine out and then put it back in with no siphoning and no mess. While the wine is in The Fermentation Sampler’s barrel you can put your gravity hydrometer it along with it to get accurate, eye-level readings.
When your done The Fermentation Sampler has a little release valve at the bottom end. Just touch it against the inside of the wine carboy and your wine sample will flow back into the carboy without wasting a drop of your precious wine.
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Ed Kraus is a 3rd generation home brewer/winemaker and has been an owner of E. C. Kraus since 1999. He has been helping individuals make better wine and beer for over 25 years.
