Bad dog!!!!

ok so everything arrived today,was excited about brewing my first ever batch, was getting everything ready,when i noticed my hydrometer was missing.. looked around and found it broken right next to my 6 month old border collie, orderd a new one which will be here in the next 7 to 10 days,, so my question is: can i just go ahead and brew without the hydrometer ,maybe theres another way to tell if its ready?or should i just suck it up and wait the 7 to 10 days?
i have an itch to scratch and that itch is my first brew,

Of course you can brew without your hydrometer. You won't know the exact OG, so you won't know the final alcohol content, but as long as you get a new hydrometer by the time the batch finishes, you can still use it to verify that the process has finished, and it's safe to bottle.

Border Collies are AWESOME dogs! Just got my new one after using up the last one (17 1/2 years!)

Oh, yeah, and go easy on the little fella, it's not HIS fault that you left your hydrometer where he could break it... make sure you don't do the same with your hops

they are great,, was not his fault at all...was all my fault,, was all excited about my first brew and left it laying around

R U an Aussie?

Do you have a pet store nearby?? You can get an emergency hydrometer there. The scale will only go up to 1.060, but it will work for a spare. And it's amazing ow the "spare hydrometers NEVER break, while in the meantime you'll go through several "real" ones.

not an aussie... im english, but currently living abroad due to work

If it's an extract recipe you're making then you really don't have to have a hydrometer. You can be pretty sure that as long as you use the specific amounts of all the ingredients, including the water, that a given recipe calls for then you'll be very close on the gravity. Even with steeped grains you're not likely to raise the SG by much.

PeteOz77 said:

R U an Aussie?

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Pete, did you hear an accent in his question?

I know there are Border Collies all over the world, but they are VERY common here... so I took a punt

Border Collies are common here as well, and I'm in Oregon. Although around here we call them Australian Border Collies, whereas you just call them... well whatever their name is

very common in england too,, had border collies all my life since i was a kid, moved abroad for work and i just had to get one

EvilTOJ said:

Border Collies are common here as well, and I'm in Oregon. Although around here we call them Australian Border Collies, whereas you just call them... well whatever their name is

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Well.. we just drop off the "Australian" part

Here's Mine! Jarrah is a new addition to the family. He's a Purebred SHorthair Border Collie...and the only red one in his family.

red collies are amazing.. how old is he?.. if i could only figure out how to insert and image here LOL

Sometimes I have my hydrometer ready (extract brewer) and have a few too many homebrews while brewing and completely forget to take an OG. So I just leave everything a bit longer; longer primary, take a reading, longer secondary, and estimate based on the ingredients; 40 for DME and 36 for LME and when I take a final reading I get pretty damn close to target.

Those Border Collies are great, they're probably the most amiable and agile of the bunch. I have had two Australian shepherds and now have an Australian Cattle Dog - she's stubborn but a great dog, heels me whenever she gets a chance.

Fitz said:

red collies are amazing.. how old is he?.. if i could only figure out how to insert and image here LOL

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He's 11 months old.

If you have the image stored somewhere online, just click on the little mountain icon (4th from the left) and put the URL of the image in there.

We went HERE last year and watched the dogs. It's amazing how well trained they are as well as how smart.