Been away from the thread for awhile, but I just have a quick question for y'all. It's just about bottling time for my first brew (the stout I posted about a few weeks back) and I'd like to take the usual three hydrometer readings before actually bottling, but I'm not sure how to go about it.
I ended up with a tad less than a gallon in the fermentor, so I'm really, really not looking forward to pulling and subsequently discarding three full sample vials of beer for these tests. How many of y'all pull samples at testing time and then return 'em to the rest of the beer when you're done? I'd like to think that I'm one of the more diligent ones when it comes to sanitation, but if it's really a bad idea I suppose I'll just have to suck it up and deal with less finished product this time around.
don't discard the samples you take for your hydrometer readings, or there won't be any beer left to drink.
here's what i do.
1. I have measured EXACTLY how much beer it takes to fill the hydrometer flask, so I know how much i lose every time i sample.
2. I wait a little longer for fermentation than absolutely necessary (like 15 days instead of 14, or 22 days instead of 21), before i take my first reading.
3. sanitize the heck out of the hydrometer tube, hydrometer, and turkey baster.
4. take my sample, record the result, and put the sample back in. record the results.
almost always, when i wait a little longer i'm at my target FG when i take that sample.
5. wait one (or two, or three) more days, and just plan on bottling it. I take another reading to be sure it's stable (also using an uber-sanitized flask, hydrometer, and baster)
i use a cup of water when i mix my priming sugar, and my hydrometer flask takes half a cup, so i figure that if i take 2 readings and dump them out i break even, if I take two readings and put them back i'm a little ahead.
and, don't get freaked out by dumping the samples back in. just sanitize the heck out of it.
for what it's worth, i've been making a "study" on how to squeeze every drop out of a one gallon batch, and this is the best approach i've come up with.