Shattered Hydrometer/Dreams

As I was brewing my latest batch, I heard my hydrometer, which was drying on the counter, fall to the ground. I wasn't able to get a replacement until two days into fermentation, there's already fun coming out of the blowoff tube (as graphic as that sounds). Is it even worth getting a gravity reading? It's certainly not OG, it's like T-Minus 2 days OG. Would it still give me any reasonable indication of fermentation completeness? I'm brewing an APA, so fermentation times shouldn't be horrendously long, as I've already got a fair amount of activity after a day or two, but I know that activity doesn't equal fermentation.

Any tips?

No reason to check the SG now, but you can definitely check it after fermentation seems to be finished, and then a few days later, to ensure that fermentation is finished.

If this was an extract batch, we can give you a very good ballpark estimate on the OG as the fermentables are pretty much "set" and don't vary by much.

Really, unless you are mightily concerned about the numbers, you can forego the hydrometer readings for this batch. Leave you beer in the primary for three weeks, then either rack to secondary (if you prefer to do so) or go right to bottle. Your beer will be fine but lacking in documentation.

It's extract, and I've got it all drawn up in beersmith. I figured I'd just measure FG and do some reasonable guesswork.

I've broken more hydrometers than I care to remember After the first time I learned not to leave it to dry on a surface where it could roll. But then the next brew I swung it around in excitement after getting a good efficiency. Turns out if you collide the end with a kitchen cabinet, the whole thing shatters!

There are four main things you can learn from a hydrometer reading:

1. By comparing OG and FG readings, you can compute your ABV
2. If you are doing all grain or partial mash, the OG reading tells you your mash efficiency
3. The FG reading tells you how dry your beer finished
4. You can notice when the reading stops moving, to tell when your beer has finished fermenting

Without an OG reading, you cannot do #1 or #2. But later readings might still be interesting for purposes #3 and #4, if you care about those.

Jif said:

It's extract, and I've got it all drawn up in beersmith. I figured I'd just measure FG and do some reasonable guesswork.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a plan! The key is to make sure your FG is stable, then you're can be assured that it's done.

I really like Beersmith. I don't know if you noticed, but you can attach BSM files to a post, or download them from the recipe database. That means, if I posted a recipe, and attached the BSM file, you can just click it to open right in Beersmith in your computer. I love that!

Friggin' tell me about it! I broke mine right before brewing my last beer. Ordered a few replacements immediately (Here in little 'ol NYC there is NO convenient HBS to speak of believe it or not). I won't mention any names, but ordered thru a respected online shop, and went with their ground / cheap delivery. Which translates to: We'll ship it when we're good and ready. Net net - 3 business days later, still yet to go out. Arggghhhh!!!!!!!!!!

Yep just broke another one, does anyone sell a plastic one?
Nothing is cleaner and nicer than glass but I need to have 2 on hand just so I can use 1.

There not very expensive but after a few it adds up

LOL... funny... my hydrometer was sitting in a bucket of bleach water in my bathtub last week while I was boiling and sure enough... here comes my 5 yr old white as a ghost and absolutely looking mortified to tell me "Dad.... I uh.. I... I broke one of your tools...."

and...yep...little pellets sittin in the bottom of my bucket.... ahhhhh..... good times...good times...

Oh.. and YooperBrew.. gotta say... I LOVE your sig!

Bite the bullet and get a refractometer on ebay. I swiped mine for like, 33 bucks shipped.

I read this thread this morning and sure enough, I dropped my hydrometer. It is stored in a plastic tube with a cap, but I lost the cap. At least I have an old spare.

You can always save some wort in a soda bottle and freeze it to test when you get a new hydrometer. You can even dilute the saved wort, boil it and use it for a starter latter.

I wish they sold hydrometers in 4-packs.

They sell nalgene and polycarbonate hydrometers which are really break resistant, but at $60 a pop quite expensive.

There's never a need to sanitize your hydrometer if you're pulling samples...