re-adding hydrometer test beer

Good idea? Bad idea?

I would assume in a clean star san hydrometer setup- you should be able to thief some beer into the setup- and dump it back in as to not waste all that nice beer. Is there too much risk for airborne bacteria or anything else not good about this practice?

bad idea. not worth it for an extra 6-8oz of beer.

Bad idea.

Invenst the $8 in a thief, and you can get a hydrometer reading with very little beer... almost no waste at all.

Either way, dump or drink the sample. No need in a potential exposure risk.

don't waste that beer...drink the sample!

just drink it. There is so much to potentially lose and so little to possibly gain by tossing it back in. I make a lot of small batches so It troubled me a little to lose the amount in my hydro flask but then I measured it and it was only like 1 cup or so.

It's a 1/3 of a beer maximum. Potentially ruining 2 cases of beer isn't worth the risk. Plus it gives you an excellent reason to drink a little bit of your beer early.

Drink it! :rockin:

thanks! Drinking it is. I have time to wait- but heh- I have to know in advance if I am going to be breaking out a specialty class or downing that stuff right from the tube

I drink it from the tube.

I pour it back in. My theif has a valve like on a bottling tube, so you push down on it, and the beer flows out the bottom. You can control the flow also.

I pour it back it. I sanitize everything of course. Hell no do I drink it.

I recently bought a refractometer, and using a spreadsheet I got on moorebeer's website I've gotten the exact same readings I get with my hydrometer. The first batch we did with the refractometer we double checked each reading with our hydrometer. We now trust the refractometer + spreadsheet to calculate the correct SG after fermentation has begun. Just need 3 drops of beer to check the gravity.

Also, most of the time I am just checking to see if it is changing, not what it is. I really only care about the OG and FG. So I don't even need the spreadsheet to do the conversion unless I'm just curious. I can always break out the hydrometer once the reading has stabilized.

sweed said:

I pour it back in. My theif has a valve like on a bottling tube, so you push down on it, and the beer flows out the bottom. You can control the flow also.

Click to expand...

this.
With a thief if there were some risk of infection it would have happened when you put the thief into the beer. returning the beer inside it adds absolutely no more risk.