Hydrometer readings???

I've been brewing for a year now and am still having trouble with reading my hydrometer I've actually pretty much stopped using it all together but am trying to get better at brewing. Any suggestions or reasons why I should be using it???

Buy a graduated cylinder with a nice wide base so that it stands straight. To read your hydrometer, simply fill the cylinder with your beer and drop they hydrometer in. You then read the line where the hydromiter breaks the surface of the water, simple as that.

You NEED it because it gives you a way to measure the progress and content of your beer. You might be ready to bottle your beer after a week, but unless you take a hydrometer reading you dont know if half the sugars have fermented or none of them. You also wont be able to calculate your ABV without an initial reading and a final reading.

The hydrometer/refractometer is the brewer's best friend! On brew day it let's you know how your efficiency was (though not as important if you are strictly extract). Most importantly though, it lets you know how fermentation is going. It is important to know that you have a stable final gravity and that it is close to your expected final gravity before you bottle. Otherwise you may end up with bottle bombs, stuck fermentation and generally unpredictable beer. Also, you get a better sense of what different final gravities taste like. There is a huge difference between a beer that finishes at 1.020 vs. 1.004. This understanding of attenuation will be invaluable when selecting yeasts, malts and choosing mash schedules.

What are your methods for taking gravity readings? At what temperatures are you taking your readings? If you give us your procedure I am sure there are some tips that will make it easier.

All that said, I think you can wing it with you taste buds. If the beer tastes right, and has had three or more weeks in the fermenter, then chances are it is done. The yeast know what they are doing; we work for them, they don't work for us. I wouldn't chance it though when it is so easy to take readings.

I agree with Genjin and Andrew. Try practice reading the hydrometer in plain water so you can see the numbers then when you do it in beer you will be able to read it easier. Another thing to do is either let your sample set until its flat and no bubbles or remove the bubbles with a straw.

Just keep using it, you will get the hang of it. It still takes me 3 or 4 attempts before I am satisfied I got the reading correct.