brewballs

i seen them in this months zymurgy. does anyone use them? they kind look cool.

Are you talking about the stainless steel mesh balls? I have one and it's junk. It doesn't fit enough hops in it to make it worthwhile...I suppose it could be useful somehow, I just haven't figured it out yet.

I think he is talking about these. I haven't tried them, but they seem like they are pretty cool.

Oh, WOW! Those are pretty nifty.

Those are cool. I would see them being very useful when doing a mead or some other brew with a long fermentation.

The only thing that has held me back on trying them is the 10 point increment between 1.020 and 1.010. Many of my beers tend to end up around 1.015 and 1.012, especially since I tend to brew bigger beers, so it would be great if there was a 1.015 ball to give just a little more granularity in that range.

Looking closer at the website, they have an email address to inquire about custom orders--maybe I'll give that a shot...

it thinking about order a set for an upcoming mead.

Kinda seems like it's mostly just an eye candy type of thing.. It wouldn't ever take the place of a hydrometer.

It seems completely gimmicky. A hydrometer is less expensive and more precise, just leave that in your brew.

Honestly, for $20, they look like crap. Now if they were colored glass or something, then I'd agree that they're neat. I like this quote from the website:

"Hydrometers can be hard to use and easy to break. After your initial hydrometer reading, you can now observe the measurement inside your glass carboy. If your carboy is stainless steel, siphon out a sample in to a clear glass and get a more accurate measurement of density with BrewBalls."

Are they hard to use? When's the last time you broke one?

scone said:

It seems completely gimmicky. A hydrometer is less expensive and more precise, just leave that in your brew.

Honestly, for $20, they look like crap. Now if they were colored glass or something, then I'd agree that they're neat. I like this quote from the website:

"Hydrometers can be hard to use and easy to break. After your initial hydrometer reading, you can now observe the measurement inside your glass carboy. If your carboy is stainless steel, siphon out a sample in to a clear glass and get a more accurate measurement of density with BrewBalls."

Are they hard to use? When's the last time you broke one?

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After reading the website a little more, I'm starting to think the same thing. I prefer the accuracy of my hydrometer over these balls and if they're telling you to take out a sample anyways...what's the point?

scone said:

It seems completely gimmicky. A hydrometer is less expensive and more precise, just leave that in your brew.

Honestly, for $20, they look like crap. Now if they were colored glass or something, then I'd agree that they're neat. I like this quote from the website:

"Hydrometers can be hard to use and easy to break. After your initial hydrometer reading, you can now observe the measurement inside your glass carboy. If your carboy is stainless steel, siphon out a sample in to a clear glass and get a more accurate measurement of density with BrewBalls."

Are they hard to use? When's the last time you broke one?

Click to expand...

Can't leave the hydrometer in the brew because fermentation will cover it in krausen and the CO2 created will stick to the bottom making it giving an inaccurate reading that is impossible to see.

I've seen them, met the inventor at GABF. I don't want them, but I wouldn't say they look like crap, and they are very precisely made so they sink at different gravities. You don't have to be able to read them either, because they are color coded, so you can just look at what colors are left to get the approximate gravity.

And I have broken at least 4 hydrometers, and trust me, I'm not the only one. They are thinner than light bulbs, bump them on anything and they shatter into a million tiny shards. I have one at home, but haven't used it in at least a year, I use a hydrometer.

The only reason I'd want them would be for my long-term sour beers. For example, I have no idea where my flanders red is right now, and I don't want to open the carboy up to find out, especially if it meant disturbing the pelicle. If I had these, I'd have at least some sort of a guess what was going on inside the fermenter. I suppose that would mean adding $20 to the cost of that beer, which I'm also unwilling to do I suppose.

the galileo ball idea seems a little silly. so you have to count the floaters and average them?

I wouldn't buy them for myself, but if these had showed up in my Christmas stocking I would have been very happy. I could see these coming in very handy for those long term ferments.

BarleyWater said:

Can't leave the hydrometer in the brew because fermentation will cover it in krausen and the CO2 created will stick to the bottom making it giving an inaccurate reading that is impossible to see.

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The brewballs will get covered in krausen and bubbles will form on it too.

BarleyWater said:

Can't leave the hydrometer in the brew because fermentation will cover it in krausen and the CO2 created will stick to the bottom making it giving an inaccurate reading that is impossible to see.

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I'm not trying to be difficult, but if the krausen hasn't dropped, why would you need to check the gravity? I agree with you on the CO2, but it will stick to the brew balls just the same. Also, I would assume that if you lightly spin the carboy then you can rid yourself of any co2 bubbles that are sticking to the hydrometer inside.

RDWHAHB. Fermentation is done after 2 weeks. If you're a wine/mead guy then I can see a need.....but for beer, meh.

I thought these looked pretty cool, then thought about it some more...

These don't help with beer that leaves unfermented sugars at around the 1.010-1.015 mark (which is a fairly common FG, no?), and the .055 and .035 are rather useless, as nobody's going to expect fermentation to stop at these gravities unless it's stuck. And then, the steps are so large, that you still need to use a hydrometer anyway.

They are however useful, if like me you also make wine and mead, and are therefore looking for ideas of gravity to tell you how dry/sweet your must is, allowing you to continue or stop fermentation. I'll probably get a set just for these purposes, but given the time that meads and wine take to ferment, I'd really like to be able to buy individual balls that would allow me to see when a given gravity has been reached (given that I tend to run 10 different wines/meads at once during the spring/summer I could use a set that gave me dry and medium gravity indications to make my life easier). They do offer the option for a custom set, so I might try to do just that, so that I can have one ball per wine/mead....

They are right on one thing. Hydrometers break easily.

they say they will do custom order. maybe they will make a setfor just the target gravity you aim for.

scone said:

Are they hard to use? When's the last time you broke one?

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2 brews ago. I never did get the reading, so my abv was never determined. hydrometers are damn easy to break.

WillPall said:

I wouldn't buy them for myself, but if these had showed up in my Christmas stocking I would have been very happy. I could see these coming in very handy for those long term ferments.

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Exactly. It's a gimmick, but a pretty clever one IMO.

friarjohn said:

they say they will do custom order. maybe they will make a setfor just the target gravity you aim for.

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This would be the best bet. The run o the mill version isn't too wonderful when you think of the krausen. I can see these being effective if you racked to secondary after a week and wanted to be lazy in checking the FG, or use them as a guide to know when to get a bit more accurate.. I can see them working great for a mead or cider where the yeast has little/no krausen going on. If they were a smidge cheaper, you could get a whole set ranging from say...1.000-1.030 and have a ball for every number, but that'd getting silly, yeah? :fro: