Who doesnt use a hydrometer?

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PartyBible

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I have not used one since my first batch, ok so I started 6 months ago, but still...

All of the beers I have made have been excellent. I primary ferment for about a week and then secondary for 2-4 weeks depending on the clarity. Bad idea or sound brewing?
 
You'll probably be able to brew like that for a good long time. But look through the "stuck ferment" threads on here and see how often a yeast will just decided to go on vacation. If you get one that stalls out early and you bottle, you'll get bottle grenades going off which is messy and dangerous.

Yeast don't work on your schedule. The only way to know for sure what's going on in there is to take a sample and check gravity.
 
I take refractometer readings and hydro samples of preboil, OG, and FG for every batch, and I put everything in Beersmith so as to help me modify recipes and accurately reproduce batches that I like.
 
I should be taking readings at all the important stages like weirdboy, but admittedly I'm lazy about it.

I usually ferment in the primary for 3-6 weeks so unless there's a stuck fermentation (which I have had and identified without the hydrometer) fermentation is definitely done by the time I bottle.
 
Yea..... I don't use one either. I keep thinking I should, and then not using it. I basically just let everything go way longer than it needs to - never a bottle bomb.
 
I broke mine, so I haven't for the past few batches that I made. I feel a little bad about it though, since I have no way of knowing my efficiency. It just so happened that my LHBS was out of hydrometers that day (and has been since).
 
I'm somewhat of a perfectionist and like consistency... the only way I can brew the same beer every time is by taking readings... you'd be surprised how much it fluctuates even if you are using the same recipe...
 
When I was doing extract and PM I never really used mine but I would let it sit in the primary for 3-6 weeks to ensure it was completely done.

Once I moved to AG and looked to cut down the time on the yeast I found that I absolutely needed to take samples. I just like to know my efficiency.

I guess it is just a matter of preference but if you are only leaving it in the primary for 7 days I would suggest using one.
 
It shocks me that people will do all this work brewing beer then not do something simple like a hydrometer reading because they're "too lazy." Really, those things together just don't make sense. If you're that lazy, you'd just go out to the store and buy a six pack.

Doing a hydrometer reading is not hard and doesn't take very long. Unless you're so experienced that you can brew a particular recipe in your sleep, you should really be using your hydrometer.

Obviously, I always use mine. I take a reading on my first runnings, my pre-boil wort, my pre-fermentation wort, and at least one - possibly several - on my post-fermentation beer.
 
I primary ferment for about a week and then secondary for 2-4 weeks depending on the clarity. Bad idea or sound brewing?

I always take readings but rarely act on them. I decide on end of fermentation by eye and by time; the hydrometer reading mainly just goes to calculating ABV.
 
i brew extract
use a hydrometer religiously and plan to continue to do the same until I can no longer physically brew my own beer (should be many many years)

it just makes sense to me.

a refractodoomaflooper would also make sense to me
 
I always take readings but rarely act on them. I decide on end of fermentation by eye and by time; the hydrometer reading mainly just goes to calculating ABV.

Yes, but if it looks done and should have time to be done, but you check it to figure the ABV and find it sitting at 1.030, I'm sure you wouldn't go ahead and bottle it. The hydrometer has done it's job. :D
 
I have only brewed two extract batches so far and I haven't used one yet, however, I bought a thief with the intention of starting to measure my gravity.
 
I'm really surprised that many people said they don't.

I thought it was a law or something. How do you know your ABV? How do you know if you've actually acheived the beer the recipe calls for? You could have way too much residual sugar... or way too much body for what the style calls for... or you could end up at a lower FG than anticipated and have it dried out or not enough body. Maybe you fermented at too high of a temp. Maybe you didn't properly prepare your yeast. Maybe you mashed too high or too low (if AG)..... the list goes on... none of which can really be told without a hydrometer.

I'm surprised that many people go by "it tastes good".
 
I'm really surprised that many people said they don't.

I thought it was a law or something. How do you know your ABV? How do you know if you've actually acheived the beer the recipe calls for? You could have way too much residual sugar... or way too much body for what the style calls for... or you could end up at a lower FG than anticipated and have it dried out or not enough body. Maybe you fermented at too high of a temp. Maybe you didn't properly prepare your yeast. Maybe you mashed too high or too low (if AG)..... the list goes on... none of which can really be told without a hydrometer.

I'm surprised that many people go by "it tastes good".

Through reading and learning these are the reasons I have decided to start measuring my gravity instead of "eye-balling" the beer :mug:
 
I used to be notorious on here as a hydrometer hater. I found that the things only made people worry. Numerous posts each day with people worrying about the fact that their OG was a little too high or a little to low, and even more posts with people worried about possible stuck fermentations.

I disowned my hydrometer years ago and just didn't check a damn thing.

I went back to checking gravity after switching from extra to AG, but I only check OG and not FG. My intent is just to find out the efficiency of my AG process.

I seriously don't have time in my life to worry about whether the beer really did or did not finish fermenting during the 4 weeks it sat in the carboys. If it didn't finish, f*ck it... I'm going to carb it and drink it anyway.

I don't give a hoot about my ABV. People sometimes ask me what the ABV of one of my beers is, and I just shrug and tell them I don't know.
 
It has very little to do with knowing your ABV.


If you take an OG and am consistantly short-arming it by somethign significant, there's something wrong with your brew process. Then the search can start and 99% of the time, you'll figure it out and fix the process... and make better beer.

If you're not fermenting out completely each time (something you won't know without an hydrometer) you're making a different beer than the recipe intended. Sure it probably "tastes good" but you're not making the beer you meant to make.

Knowing your OG and FG will tell you whether or not you're doing things correctly... regardless of whether or not it tastes good.

And unless you know if you're doing it correctly... you're just winging it and being left in the dark on whether or not it could be even better.
 
Yeah, but I still don't want to get myself all worried about it. I make beer because I enjoy making beer and the end product comes out very good.

Could it be better? Maybe.

Is it still pretty damn good? Definitely.

Do I want to start measuring everything, find some flaw I never knew was there in the first place, and then struggle and worry about it to try to make it my damn good beer damn better? Absolutely not.
 
To me, the argument that taking a couple hyrdometer samples takes too much time just doesn't make sense. It would be like not measuring your ingredients. Sure, you could eyeball your grain and your hops and it would be quicker than getting the scale out, but why? Taking a hydrometer sample takes all of about 2 minutes including sanitation and it gives you useful information.

My big rule of homebrewing is that it's your beer and you can do whatever the hell you want with it and to hell with anyone who says you should do it different, but I just don't understand sometimes.
 
I use a refractometer and a hydrometer. I went without either a couple of batches ago and will never do that again. Not that the beer turned out badly. It's just that I found myself concerned about the damn batch.

Walker said hydrometers tend to make people worry too much. I was the opposite. It's like a comfy blanket to me.
 
I use hydrometer readings as a scorecard of how my brew went. I know what I am targeting so why not see how close I got?

I may or may not take a FG reading depending how much I care at the time. But I don't brew multiple styles like a lot of people where staying within parameters matters.

But I should get into the habit of taking pre-boil readings in the event I screwed up my mash. Those things can be corrected if you have the data to know and that's what hydrometers are for.
 
My big rule of homebrewing is that it's your beer and you can do whatever the hell you want with it and to hell with anyone who says you should do it different, but I just don't understand sometimes.

+1 on the "do whatever the hell you want".

For me, it's not a matter of time that makes me not take readings.... it's simply that I don't really care. If I took a reading of FG and found that it wasn't as low as I expected, I wouldn't attempt to do anything about it anyway, so why bother checking?

Now, if my beer TASTES too dry or TASTES too malty, I might adjust the mash temp the next time I make it, but it's all based on my taste. Numbers don't mean nearly as much to me as does the experience of actually drinking the beer.

But... to each his own.

brew on!
:rockin:
 
Yeah, but I still don't want to get myself all worried about it.
You know, you can have it both ways. Check it, but don't worry about it. Just use that little piece of information next time around to make corrections. Mash temps, grain bill, fermenting temps . . . whatever. There’s a difference between obsessive worrying and being an informed brewing.
 
The owner of my LHBS said " You can make brewing as simple or as complex as you want. I never use one."
 
I almost always check my OG and FG when doing extract, although the OG more often than not tended to come out a little low (probably partially to do with insufficient stirring after topping off the water, or topping off the water too much because I never knew my pail markings were mostly too high, thanks HBT!). I would almost always top off the water to the (inaccurate) 5 gallon mark figuring that if I put in the exact amount of extract then there would be no explanation for it being too low except for racking loss. I'd write down the number, and whichever day that I wanted to bottle I would check the FG and consider how much it dropped before I decide to go ahead and bottle. As far as I can remember, it was always low enough by then for me. I rarely check the gravity before I am ready to bottle, I probably did on a lager or two since they move slower. I just don't like opening the fermenter. I never felt like getting out or making a little bit of sanitizer just to measure the gravity between OG and FG (things have changed). Due to the seemingly nonsensical OGs at the time, I never worried too much about the outcome.

I do try to get my brewing friends to measure at least their OG and FG, even just for my own information. At least once I pointed out a FG that was too high to bottle, and it tasted like it too, so we put it in a secondary (it might have needed one anyway, can't remember).

Now that I have correct markings on my pails, and having thought more about how I would adjust my recipe or wort concentration when doing AG, and wanting more to brew a better and more consistent beer, I will not care how close I get to 5 gallons, I'm going to adjust the post-boil volume to land the right OG in the boil kettle and then just ferment whatever volume I can manage to rack out. That way I'm not leaving behind denser wort in the BK that could have possibly made it into the fermenter if it were thinned out to start with.

Another point is that the FG won't cause bottle bombs if it is kegged. If it tastes good and gets kegged, that's all that particular batch matters (to me anyway). I'd still encourage measuring it but I wouldn't be terrified if it was 1.020-1.025.
 
Another point is that the FG won't cause bottle bombs if it is kegged. If it tastes good and gets kegged, that's all that particular batch matters (to me anyway). I'd still encourage measuring it but I wouldn't be terrified if it was 1.020-1.025.

Oh, kegging changes a lot of things. Even if it is stuck, if it taste's good... then keg it up!
 
You know, you can have it both ways. Check it, but don't worry about it. Just use that little piece of information next time around to make corrections. Mash temps, grain bill, fermenting temps . . . whatever. There’s a difference between obsessive worrying and being an informed brewing.

This is exactly what I do. I don't worry about missing my OG/FG when it happens, but I do make changes to my process, so that next time I will hopefully hit my targets better.
 
Maybe it's just my hydrometer, but I can't figure out how to get an accurate reading with mine. Plus, I've started using a glass carboy for fermentation and can't just drop it into the wort without it staying there for two weeks, so I've stopped using mine. I'm definitely go to start using them when I do my own recipes until then.
 
I've started using a glass carboy for fermentation and can't just drop it into the wort without it staying there for two weeks

Wine thief:
eqp6017.jpg


Turkey baster:
3038899189_a8a1727a53_m.jpg


Hydrometer test jar:
TEST-JAR.jpg


It's really not a good plan to put your hydrometer right into your fermenter. Besides, if you do that, you miss out on the excuse to drink your sample!
 
I've read through the thread and noticed that there are numerous reasons to use one, but few not to. (I understand Walkers concept that it can make a person nervous with off readings.)

I kinda align with Walker. ABV doesn't mean a whole lot to me, taste more so. I've been leaving in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks (so it should be done) Last 2 I just checked FG with a refract.
 
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