Is there a hydrometer calibration walkthrough on the internet?

Probably I could just google this one.....but I'd like to have information that you guys already trust.

So...here is my problem: I have never calibrated my hydrometer. I dont know if this is okay (I mean I can get away with it) or a pretty big mistake, but I'd like to know what you guys think and if there are some trustworthy pages with information on how to do calibrate it?

Thanks.

Water at the calibration temperature of your hydrometer is 1.000

10g of dissolved table sugar should give you a reading of 1.040

beerkench said:

10g of dissolved table sugar should give you a reading of 1.040

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Let me just add....in 90 grams of water...which is 90 ml water at room temperature.

To check the zeroed reading, you'd want to use distilled water for best results. If you're looking to also test accuracy with various amounts of sugar, I'd think just knowing the appropriate offset for distilled water would be plenty accurate.

Calibrating your hydrometer is a good idea. I never thought about it until I got a refractometer and noticed an inconsistency. It turned out that my hydrometer reads 4 points too high.

If I recall, 68 degrees is the temp for 1.000. Although I have never seen a hydrometer that you can calibrate. In the past they have always been calibrated by the manufacturer. Then again, I haven't purchased one in some 20 yrs...

grainbill said:

If I recall, 68 degrees is the temp for 1.000. Although I have never seen a hydrometer that you can calibrate. In the past they have always been calibrated by the manufacturer. Then again, I haven't purchased one in some 20 yrs...

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This goes to show that if you take proper care of a hydrometer it will last you forever.

grainbill said:

If I recall, 68 degrees is the temp for 1.000. Although I have never seen a hydrometer that you can calibrate. In the past they have always been calibrated by the manufacturer. Then again, I haven't purchased one in some 20 yrs...

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I don't think you can actually calibrate them, but if your hydrometer doesnt read 1.000 for pure water at its calibration temperature then you know you need to account for that difference in all the readings you take. So maybe it's more the hydrometer calibrating YOU!

grainbill said:

If I recall, 68 degrees is the temp for 1.000. Although I have never seen a hydrometer that you can calibrate. In the past they have always been calibrated by the manufacturer. Then again, I haven't purchased one in some 20 yrs...

Click to expand...

The calibration temp should be printed on the paper inside the hydrometer. Mine was calibrated at 60F so there are at least 2 different calibration standards

Mine is calibrated at 60F as well. I think i had one that was calibrated at 70F but I could be misremembering.

If it don't read 1.000 in water just break it in two, then get another.

Mine is calibrated at 60F too. So I put it in plain water at 60F and it read about 1.002. So I subtract 0.002 from every reading I take with it.