hydrometer

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tommyguner03

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i hate to make a new thread on this since i cant find my answer.. so i took my second reading with the hydrometer in the primary fermentation. it has been 8 days since brew day. i took my first reading two days ago and but the hydrometer in and reading came back 1.020.. ok so gave 3 days and today i went and did the same but my hydrometer went to the bottom? and came back up.. reading was 1.012.. i tested my hydrometer in water and it came with a reading of 1.000 .. is there anything wrong here?
 
1.000 is normal for water. Looks like you are ok. Check it again in a day, if you are still at 1.012 for 2 -3 days straight, then fermenation is about over.
 
Seems legit to me. Sometimes it can take a little time for the beer to fully ferment. Just keep checking your readings (i like to check every other day after about 5days) and when it stays the same it should be ready. Oh and don't forget to adjust your reading to compensate for temp. It's a good habit to have.
 
Looks like your beer is fermenting! Give it another three days and take another reading. Don't keg/bottle/rack to secondary until the yeast has done it's job. It never hurts to let it go a bit longer, but it might hurt to rack it too early.
 
Seems like fermentation is still going on and the yeast are taking their sweet time. Is your ferm temp low? What's your expected final gravity? Check your SG tomorrow or the next day. If it doesn't change from your current reading, you're good to go!

Edit: dang! Typing on a phone is slow -- multiple people beat me to it....
 
thanks for the quick reply .. i was just worried when i saw the hydrometer drop and take a while to come back up
 
I'm glad I'm not the only person checking posts on their phone. I was starting to worry that I had a problem...

Somewhat related, there's actually an iphone app for people like me who are afraid of math called "abevulator." Just enter the OG and FG and it tells you the ABV. Are we slaves to tech or WHAT?

What's the brew, tommyguner?
 
Brewsit said:
It never hurts to let it go a bit longer, but it might hurt to rack it too early.
If you take one thing from this thread, this would be it.
 
I'm glad I'm not the only person checking posts on their phone. I was starting to worry that I had a problem...

Somewhat related, there's actually an iphone app for people like me who are afraid of math called "abevulator." Just enter the OG and FG and it tells you the ABV. Are we slaves to tech or WHAT?

What's the brew, tommyguner?

a gluten free brew..
 
Ok.. I've tried to do that the first time well to test with water and it didn't work..the case it came with isn't big enough. It came in two cases .. Half and half if that makes sense .. Looks like I'm heading to the brew shop tomorrow. Thanks
 
Oh, I see. Mine is just a long tube with plugs on either end.

They will have graduated cylinders at the shop. Might want to pick up a thief while you're at it instead of a noob style turkey baster:eek:

In the mean time any container works fine... Pint glass, flower jar... you just end up wasting more beer instead of the long narrow cylinder.
 
Seems like fermentation is still going on and the yeast are taking their sweet time. Is your ferm temp low? What's your expected final gravity? Check your SG tomorrow or the next day. If it doesn't change from your current reading, you're good to go!

Edit: dang! Typing on a phone is slow -- multiple people beat me to it....

right now the temp is at 68 when "high fermentation" was going on the high was 75 and now its been sitting at 68 for about 5 days.. I'm going to let it ride and check on monday which will be the two week mark
 
Dude. A lot of people put the hydrometer directly in the primary. As long as its sanitized, it won't hurt a thing.
 
GenIke said:
yes. Take a sanitized turkey baster or something and put the beer into the little plastic cylinder that the hydrometer came in. Then measure.

Not a rookie mistake at all. As long as you sanitize you hydrometer, there is nothing wrong with reading from the fermenter.

Cheers!
 
I have an easier time reading it in the primary than I do from a test tube.
 
I assume that's using the hydrometer in a bucket. I don't know how you would get it back out of a carboy.
 
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