Gravity reading problem

[Hunter7922]

Newbie question on hydrometer gravity reading.
ok, well I've read a lot of New distiller reading Lounge and I think I'm defiantly getting there.

I have done about 90% of the cleaning and will run the ethanol cleaning this week end, but in the mean time I though that since Uncle Jesse's corn mash takes about a week to ferment I would start it now and finish my still cleaning and test runs.

So the Mash I made was 9 lbs cracked corn (bird seed - no preservatives), 8 lbs cane sugar, 5 gal water (2.5 gal I heated up to 180 deg to dissolve the sugar). I then waited until temp was 104 and before I added Red Star dry active yeast I took my Gravity reading.

My Hydrometer did not sink at all, why?
Temp was to high, to much sugar to corn, not enough water....

Any help would be great.

Thanks

[bitter]

Are you testing just the liquid? The floating corn will stop the hydrometer with UJSSM so take a sample of the sugar/water mixture and test in a test cylander. Also hydrometers are temperature specific.

Are you trying to use your tails meter or an wine/beer hydrometer?

B

[Hunter7922]

thanks Bitters
99% of the corn was out of the my test cylinder. the liquid was very cloudy and I can only assume that's because of the sugar content.

I purchased a LD Carlson proof and tralles scale as I think this is for alcohol reading and not beer.

H

[Still Life]

was it resting on the grain bed and not sinking?
With my current recipe I've got so much grain I have a tough time finding a reading spot.
Gotta take a sample out.

[POSTED same time as above]

[MichiganCornhusker]

What you got there is beer. Proof & tralle won't work until you distill it.
You need a beer & wine hydrometer also

[Bushman]

What you got there is beer. Proof & tralle won't work until you distill it.
You need a beer & wine hydrometer also

+1 or a refractometer. Off topic but thanks MCH just reminded me to add a link in the Glossary to the thread on how to read the hydrometer.