page_title: Ferdinand Oechsle
section_title: The must balance
hierarchical_section_title: Ferdinand Oechsle / The must balance
context_page_description: Christian Ferdinand Oechsle was a German mechanical workshop owner, goldsmith and inventor.
  He is most noted for developing a method for measuring the must weight of the grape must in winemaking. The Oechsle scale, named after him and divided into degrees Oechsle, is still used for official classification of German wine, Swiss wine and Luxembourg wine.
context_section_description: In the 1820s Oechsle produced the first single copies of the must balance (hydrometer) with a scale in degrees. He realised that if it would be possible to measure the sugar content of the must, it should be possible to better predict the development of the resulting wine. From the 1830s, Oeschle must balances were mass-produced.
  Oechsle did actually not invent the must balance as such; different versions by different manufacturers had existed beginning more than 250 years previous. What he did do was to introduce a practically useful scale on the balance, and to put the balance into mass production.
  Oechsle's hydrometers were made out of metal, typically nickel silver; the hollow body of the float was typically gilt.
  When Oechsle started mass-producing his hydrometers, sweet wines from very ripe grapes were established as the top echelon of German wines since a few decades. This development followed the accidental discovery of the first Spätlese wine in 1775, and the introduction of the Auslese designation in 1787. It was therefore attractive to winemakers to be able to easily measure and classify the sugar content of the grape musts.
caption: A hydrometer showing the hydrometry principle. The hydrometer in the image is of the more common glass type, while Oechsle produced metal versions.
exif: {}