Question for the knowledgable

If I don't have a hydrometer, what is the next best way to tell if primary fermentation is over and ready to move to a carboy? Mine is in the mail and I just want to make sure I don't hesitate and risk oxygen spoilage.

malisk said:

If I don't have a hydrometer, what is the next best way to tell if primary fermentation is over and ready to move to a carboy? Mine is in the mail and I just want to make sure I don't hesitate and risk oxygen spoilage.

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The next best way is to wait for your hydrometer to be delivered. If it's in the primary fermenter at the tail end of primary fermentation, then it should have a nice blanket of CO2 on it and can last until your hydrometer shows up without any risk of O2 spoilage.

Relax.

Yeah, you can leave it without worry. No need to rush it.

But if the yeast drops and it tastes good, probably ready to bottle.

Your beer isn't going to spoil while the hydrometer is getting delivered. In fact, you are probably improving it while waiting.

Many of us wait weeks - even months - to bottle. As long as you aren't doing something silly like opening a bucket over and over (and thus postenially exposing your beer to oxygen), it is doing nothing but happily aging away as we speak. 3-4 week primaries are very typical.

Ace Club that answer made my day. Although I agree that you should just get one you could also just go the whole wait three weeks and it's done route. By then fermentation on normal beers is over and the yeast should be dropped or dropping out. Whatever you do don't rush it.

homebrewdad said:

Your beer isn't going to spoil while the hydrometer is getting delivered. In fact, you are probably improving it while waiting.

Many of us wait weeks - even months - to bottle. As long as you aren't doing something silly like opening a bucket over and over (and thus postenially exposing your beer to oxygen), it is doing nothing but happily aging away as we speak. 3-4 week primaries are very typical.

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I thought I posted this in the wine forum - I may have accidentally messed up since I am on my phone- but I am brewing a red wine as opposed to a beer. Not sure if that changes things.

malisk said:

I thought I posted this in the wine forum - I may have accidentally messed up since I am on my phone- but I am brewing a red wine as opposed to a beer. Not sure if that changes things.

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Well you are in the wine forum now. Looks like the Mod fairies have whisked you away to the proper land. Red wine should still be ok with that blanket of O2 on it. Last two wines I did were a Lemon and White grape peach and they were left in primary for a couple of months before racking, finally clearing in secondary and bottled a few months later.

If you want to measure gravity, use this trick: Stand on a scale while holding the carboy. Then put the carboy down and stand on the scale again. If you subtract one weight from the other, you'll get the weight of the carboy. If you know the weight of an empty carboy, then you'll have the specific gravity of the beer inside, since it's specifically beer.

Then you just divide the weight by the total volume of the beer.

Make your own hydrometer out of a buoyant material. Calibrate it against a known sample of water and sugar, i.e. 1L of water with 25 grams sugar will be something close to 1.010. Then check a sample of your fermented wine with your homemade hydrometer. Or vice-versa. That would be fun.