checking gravity when racking to secondary

i was wondering if everything would be fine if i took a sample for checking the gravity while racking my brew from the primary to the secondary if everything is sanitized it should be fine to add it to the secondary right? i know the books say to just let it go man, but i only brew 2 to 2.5 gals at a time and samples add up. just wondering if that was anyones standard operating procedure of if i should just chalk up the sample as a sample.

-nick

I'd take the sample first- and then not rack if I wasn't at the expected FG. If it is where expected, then rack it (and drink the sample).

I always take a sample before or during racking. Then I drink it (For quality control).
The key here is never, EVER pour the measured sample back into the secondary or even the bottling bucket. The risk of contamination is just not worth it.

+1 to Yooper. Given that you mustn't rack before the ferment is finished, and you can't know if the ferment is finished without using your hydrometer, it follows that you shouldn't take the sample at racking; you should measure gravity before racking, as gravity, not time, is what tells you when it's time to rack.

Now, more pertinent to your question, not only is it unwise from a sanitation standpoint to return samples to the fermenter, you should be drinking the samples. Not to save beer (though that's true), but to become a better brewer. Good brewers know what beer tastes like at all stages of the process, because they've tasted beer at all stages of the process. That helps the brewer detect possible problems, helps him decide if everything is going according to plan.

Yes, young beer can be perfectly foul. But if you know that perfectly foul three-day-old beer will end up as perfectly divine beer at three months old, it's a good reference point for your notes.

You dig?

Bob

Here, read my blog...it will answer the question of what you should do first.

http://blogs.homebrewtalk.com/Revvy/Think_evaluation_before_action/

cool, thanks you guys thats what i thought but i wasn't quite sure how other people do it.

-nick

The point of secondary is to help clear the beer (though many of us skip secondary and leave it in primary for a month) but those that rack to secondary wait until fermentation is complete...and the ONLY way to know that is with your hydrometer...Not by airlock bubbling, or the instructions in your kit...only by the numbers.

My hydro uses 1/2 cup, a drop in the bucket even if the bucket is 'only' 2.5 gallons.