Small scale sanitation

Hey all, I'm going to be taking a hydrometer reading today of my brew and thought I'd ask. How do you go about sanitizing the hydrometer for the reading without mixing up a bunch of sanitizing solution? I have a bunch of star San but don't want to mix up 2.5 gallons of solution just to sanitize a hydrometer...seems like a waste. I was thinking about just putting it in a little hot water, like 180 f for about 5-10 minutes... Would this work out alrite?

Might not help you right this second but I always keep a 5G bucket of StarSan mixed up and ready to roll. Only swap it out if it starts to get some funk in it. I also have some in a spray bottle for surfaces.

I would be careful putting your hydrometer in hot/boiling water. The glue that holds the paper in may come loose.

Jason

It might break if you stick it in hot water but you shouldn't need to sanitize you refractometer anyways as you should be removing the wort from the fermentor to take a reading and then dumping (or drinking) it to avoid contamination. you will however need to make a small batch of sanitizer for your turkey baster or whatever you removing the wort from the fermentor with. I would just make up a gallon for easy scaling and save it for future sample draws.

I keep 5 gallons of StarSan mixed in a bucket at all times for sanitizing during brewing. I fill a spray bottle from that to sanitize 'on the fly' as it were. I keep the spray bottle under the sink so that it is there whenever I need it.

Also, as nm999 said, take the sample and don't return it to the fermenter. This is a great opportunity to gauge the progress of your beer

The StarSan bottle should have markings on it for 1/4 oz. Then you'd only need to mix up 1.25 gallons of solution.

Agree with the other posters that you don't need to sanitize your hydrometer, just whatever instrument you will use to retrieve the sample (wine thief, turkey baster, etc.). Also agree about keeping a spray bottle of StarSan readily available. It always comes in handy for these types of situations.

tmurph6 said:

Hey all, I'm going to be taking a hydrometer reading today of my brew and thought I'd ask. How do you go about sanitizing the hydrometer for the reading without mixing up a bunch of sanitizing solution? I have a bunch of star San but don't want to mix up 2.5 gallons of solution just to sanitize a hydrometer...seems like a waste. I was thinking about just putting it in a little hot water, like 180 f for about 5-10 minutes... Would this work out alrite?

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take a sample out of the fermentor. then drink the sample.

You would still need to sanitize the thief. I'm just going to put the hydrometer into the bucket. I'll mix up 1.25 gallons of solution. Thanks!

tmurph6 said:

You would still need to sanitize the thief. I'm just going to put the hydrometer into the bucket. I'll mix up 1.25 gallons of solution. Thanks!

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It's almost better to take the sample out. Sure you have to sanitize the thief, but then you get to taste the sample. This gives you insight into the changes that your beer is going through during fermentation.

get a 32 oz spray bottle and mix 32 oz of distilled water with 1.5 ml of StarSan. I use a pet medicine syringe to measure the StarSan.

If you make StarSan with distilled water it keeps for a really long time; if you make it with tap water it will only keep about a month.

BrewMoreBeers said:

get a 32 oz spray bottle and mix 32 oz of distilled water with 15 ml of StarSan. I use a pet medicine syringe to measure the StarSan.

If you make StarSan with distilled water it keeps for a really long time; if you make it with tap water it will only keep about a month.

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yeah, spray bottle of starsan is really, really helpful

i also use the spray bottle to star san the bottles after rinsing them out. keeps any microbe population down until you clean bottles pre-bottling

BrewMoreBeers said:

get a 32 oz spray bottle and mix 32 oz of distilled water with 1.5 ml of StarSan. I use a pet medicine syringe to measure the StarSan.

If you make StarSan with distilled water it keeps for a really long time; if you make it with tap water it will only keep about a month.

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I meant 1.5 ml... I have updated the original post.