Testing sg

How do you guys test your specific gravity without introducing bacteria into the fermenter when you get the wort to test? I have heard that some brewers separate a small amount of wort from the main batch at the beginning of the fermentation and use this to test SG. Does this work?

that will work out fine. good luck newbee

I'm not sure how you transfer your cooled wort to your fermentor post-boil, but whatever your method, pour some off into a wine thief or tall thin glass to drop in the hydrometer.

It's easier if you siphon it in or if you have a valve, but pouring works just fine if you go very slowly.

cimirie said:

I'm not sure how you transfer your cooled wort to your fermentor post-boil, but whatever your method, pour some off into a wine thief or tall thin glass to drop in the hydrometer.

It's easier if you siphon it in or if you have a valve, but pouring works just fine if you go very slowly.

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What about after its been in the fermentor for about 2 weeks? Is it safe to open up the bucket to test? My first brew went from bucket to bottling bucket to bottle after 10 days. I'm letting my current one sit for a while longer (I learned about the advantages of letting it sit longer in the primary from this forum ) but would like to perform a hydrometer test

Get a wine thief, sanitize it really well, get some help to hold stuff. Then remove the lid take a sample and replace the lid as fast as possible. Everything should be fine! You really don't even have to move that fast.

This is the one I have, I love it!
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermtech-wine-thief.html

If you have a spigot on your bucket, that would be ideal. My guess is that if you had a spigot, however, you wouldn't have asked the question, so...

I would use a wine thief. I'd you don't have one, the are a long clear plastic tube with a "button" on the bottom. You can dip it to the bottom of the bucket/carboy/etc, and once the button is depressed the tube will fill. I highly recommend one and they're not expensive.

If you do have one, simply make sure it has soaked in StarSan (or another sanitizer) before putting it in your beer. Don't keep the lid off for a terribly long time and you should be fine. The abv should be high enough at this point to deal with any "in passing" bugs.

I take a sample after I pitch my yeast and put it in an empty beer bottle with a piece of paper towel stuffed in and take my gravity readings with that so I dont have to ever open the fermenter till Im ready to bottle works just fine you can see the fermentation in its stages and not have to worry about infection because infection wont affect the fermentation process then just dump it when your done with it some call it a satelight fermenter.

Bubba said:

I take a sample after I pitch my yeast and put it in an empty beer bottle with a piece of paper towel stuffed in and take my gravity readings with that so I dont have to ever open the fermenter till Im ready to bottle works just fine you can see the fermentation in its stages and not have to worry about infection because infection wont affect the fermentation process then just dump it when your done with it some call it a satelight fermenter.

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I love that! I'm gonna have to start using that.

Bubba,

That's what I hear some people were doing. Since I use glass carboys that seems like a good solution. What do you think about this: I will take about a half a quart of the pitched wort from a 5 gallon brew and transfer it into a small glass container. I will ferment both in the same location. When I want to check SG I will use the "wort in the quart". Will the 2 ferment at the pace?

Robert

You know, there is so much all over the place telling brewers, what not to do, do you actually think folks would be saying to use your hydrometer so much? Is it a vast conspiracy to ruin millions of new brewer's batches, so that they flee the hobby and give it a bad rap? Every book, every podcast, every posts talks about gravity of beer...how do you think they get them?

WIth proper care and simple sanitization, you run no risk of infecting your beer by taking a simple gravity reading.

This is what I use, and it works with both buckets and carboys. I replaced the plastic one a year ago with an extra long stainless baster from a kitchen ware store and it is awesome. But the plastic one from any grocery store works fine.



And



Here's what I do....

1) With a spray bottle filled with starsan I spray the lid of my bucket, or the mouth of the carboy, including the bung. Then I spray my turkey baster inside and out with sanitize (or dunking it in a container of sanitizer).

2) Open fermenter.

3) Draw Sample

4) fill sample jar (usualy 2-3 turky baster draws

5)Spray bung or lid with sanitizer again

6) Close lid or bung

6) add hydrometer and take reading

It is less than 30 seconds from the time the lid is removed until it is closed again. More like 15 if you ask me.

Probably less if you have help. And unless a bird flies in your place and lets go with some poop, you should be okay.

xon432246 said:

I have heard that some brewers separate a small amount of wort from the main batch at the beginning of the fermentation and use this to test SG. Does this work?

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No, it really doesn't work. That "satellite fermenter" idea will only tell you WHAT YOUR BEER WILL FINISH AT, NOT when your 5 gallon batch of beer will be done.

It's used to measure attenuation of the yeast, not rate of fermentation.

It will take yeast a lot less time to chew through 12 ounces of wort than it will 5 gallons.....so don't trust that silly thing that someone came up with because they are too afraid to take samples from their beer as being accurate.

If you do take that as "gospel" you more than likely are rushing your beer off the yeast way to soon. You know "bottle Bombs" or suddenly posting an "is my beer in secondary ruined?" thread because now that you moved it to secondary because the "satellite" said it was done, you now have this scary looking growth that you have never seen in your bucket (because the lid is one) that suddenly grew on top of your wort and is ugly as sin....which we of course will tell you to rdwhahb because that is just krausen and it formed because you racked too soon and the yeast is still trying to work to make beer for you.

The idea came from commercial breweries, but you have to realize when they are using in it a 3 or 7 or 10bbl fermentaion setup, that their sattelite looks like this.



And they are drawing off hydro sample out of that bucket just like we do.

And they are STILL going to be taking readings and tasting the REAL beer in the ACTUAL FERMENTER, before making any determination.

It's been adopted by some home brewers, and unfortunately gets perpetuated by people (mostly noobs scared of taking real hydro readings) but it's about as accurate as airlock bubbling, (and you know where I count that in terms of fermentation gauges- slightly below the astrological calender )

Please don't fear taking a real hydro sample of your beer, don't ever go by a satellite grav reading.....Or an airlock....

Revvy, in your pic above, do you use a bucket with spigot as a primary? I hadnt thought about that.

cg17 said:

Revvy, in your pic above, do you use a bucket with spigot as a primary? I hadnt thought about that.

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No, that's just a picture from the web...

I think spigots on primaries are useless....

Revvy said:

No, that's just a picture from the web...

I think spigots on primaries are useless....

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Why? Just wondering as I saw a video of someone filling up a keg right from the spigot. No siphoning necessary. Looked pretty easy.

DarkUncle said:

Why? Just wondering as I saw a video of someone filling up a keg right from the spigot. No siphoning necessary. Looked pretty easy.

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Hopefully the yeast cake and all the "stuff" that drops out in primary is lower than your spigot and the flow of beer out the spigot doesn't pull any "stuff" with it into the keg/bottling bucket.

The spigot on a bottling bucket tends to be pretty high and if doing month long primarys the yeast cake should be pretty compact. I may try it if there are no other concerns.

DarkUncle said:

The spigot on a bottling bucket tends to be pretty high and if doing month long primarys the yeast cake should be pretty compact. I may try it if there are no other concerns.

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I've used a bottling bucket plenty. I've only had a problem transferring when I did a big belgian so if you're doing mid gravity beers, have at it. Having said that, I think revvy's a fan of no secondary in which case, I wouldn't use the spigot. Its not quite as clean a pull as a siphon. It was never a problem for me, because I still use a secondary on most of my beers.

I stopped the technique, though, because I would rather clean a siphon by running water through immediately and dunking it in starsan than take apart a spigot and try to clean all the parts. It's not a huge ordeal, but I am as lazy as I can get away with!