I do primary in a carboy. Whats the best way to get beer out to test specific gravity

I usually do a partial mash in a 5 gal. pot and then add this to icewater in the carboy, so my wort isnt even complete and cooled until its in the carboy. I have been using my autosyphon to get out a graduated cylinder of beer out, but it seems like people must have an easier way.

also, although I usually just eyeball it to figure out when to rack to secondary, I have heard of people taking specific gravity readings during the brewing process to see how far along things are. How do I get my sample out then. I am sure the answer is fairly simple, but I am kind of new to this, so forgive me.

A wine thief or a turkey baster work great. Sanitized of course

The part of your auto siphon (without the racking cane) can work as a wine thief as well, just submerge and let it fill up with liquid and pull it out. Not as clean of a solution as the first 2 but it works in a pinch

Get a wine theif.

+1 on the wine thief. Very easy to use-and nice to have if you just want to sneak a taste.

Love the thief!!

I will +1 the turkey baster... Just because you can pick one up for a buck at the grocery store and it can serve a multitude of other purposes... like basting turkeys.....

I'm planning to get a wine thief. I like how it is able to "quietly" replace the sample. A couple hydrometer readings worth of beer could make the difference for one more bottle.

deathweed said:

I will +1 the turkey baster... Just because you can pick one up for a buck at the grocery store and it can serve a multitude of other purposes... like basting turkeys.....

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Basting turkeys w/beer! mmmmmmm

Coastarine said:

I'm planning to get a wine thief. I like how it is able to "quietly" replace the sample. A couple hydrometer readings worth of beer could make the difference for one more bottle.

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No actually it doesn't really make that much of a difference, when you brew enough beer you won't worry about the loss of a couple ounces to take a god sample, because taking a few sample ensures that you are making the best beer possible, and it's better to have less bottles of great beer than crappy beer....

Plus you don't really want to put it back in the beer...what if you didn't quite sanitize the thief properly or something, or while you're not looking a fly poops in your hydro sample....too risky.

You're supposed to drink your hydro samples, you n00b you!

Revvy said:

No actually it doesn't really make that much of a difference, when you brew enough beer you won't worry about the loss of a couple ounces to take a god sample, because taking a few sample ensures that you are making the best beer possible, and it's better to have less bottles of great beer than crappy beer....

Plus you don't really want to put it back in the beer...what if you didn't quite sanitize the thief properly or something, or while you're not looking a fly poops in your hydro sample....too risky.

You're supposed to drink your hydro samples, you n00b you!

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+1.



I just clipped part of the tubing off of my autosiphon and put it on a turkey baster. I'm using a 6.5 gal carboy for 5 gallons, and it worked fine.

Turkey baster user here. I can get into the neck of my better bottles and about 1 inch below the surface of the beer without disturbing things too greatly or displacing the CO2 too much. I'm anal and put a fresh CO2 blanket down anyway, but before I had that capability the turkey baster on its own is pretty non invasive.

And hell yeah Revvy, I love drinking hydro samples. This is one thing that keeps me from shelling out the dough for a refractometer.

an eye dropper or narrow pipette and a refractometer. refractometers are 30 bucks on eBay, so I still don't know why people mess around with breakable hydrometers. JMO.

potzertommy said:

I usually do a partial mash in a 5 gal. pot and then add this to icewater in the carboy, so my wort isnt even complete and cooled until its in the carboy.

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This part scares me. Mixing two temperatures in a glass container? Yikes!

Randar said:

an eye dropper or narrow pipette and a refractometer. refractometers are 30 bucks on eBay, so I still don't know why people mess around with breakable hydrometers. JMO.

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Aren't refractometers only accurate pre-ferment?

sanitized turkey baster here and has been working fine for a long time.