Hydrometer off?

Got my first batch of red ale going this Tuesday.
After the wort was cooled down, I aerated it as I pitched the yeast. Took the hydrometer reading after is stopped swirling and it came out to 1.044. According to the directions, I added 1 because the room was at 70 degrees...readings on the scale per directions were ment to be done at 60 degrees.
The OG on the kit instructions said 1.048 - 1.052
Today I was just curious and took a reading with tap water, still at 70 degrees in the room I got a reading of 1.002...it should be at 1.000 no? Does that sound right or should I try again with the bottled spring water I used when I did my boil?

Now when the time comes to take a reading out of the fermentor, how long can I have the cover off before I have to worry about any bacteria or wild yeast entering? It was yesterday I seen a video where the sample that was originally checked was held in a separate bottle to recheck at a later time to avoid removing the lid.

Thanks for any help!

it should be at 1.000 no?

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1.000 at 60F, not 70. Slightly higher at 70F.

Water temp needs to be at 60, not the room temp, and it needs to be distilled water if you want to calibrate your hydrometer. The minerals in Spring and Tap water can throw off the hydrometer.

Also, did you do a full boil or did you top off your fermenter before pitching yeast? If you added water to get to your final volume it probably wasn't mixed enough to give you an accurate reading.

Check it in distilled water at 60° it should read 1.000. If not note the difference and add or subtract that from all your gravity readings.
eg. if reading 1.001 than you will need to subtract .001 from all your readings then include any temperature corrections

david_42 said:

1.000 at 60F, not 70. Slightly higher at 70F.

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Wait, now i'm confused. you mean slightly lower at 70, right? ...because warmer water is less dense than colder (until you hit freezing)

Just use this...

Check out the "calibrate your hydrometer" link in my signature. And yes, distilled water at 60 degrees Fahrenheit should read 1.000.