Sampling fermenting beer for hydrometer readings

Hey there, it's my first batch and first post.

This may seem like a dumb question, but how does one get beer out of the glass carboy to take hydrometer readings? Heard some people mention "pouring" a little out of the carboy, but that seems kinda difficult.

I suppose you don't have a wine thief. You could always use a turkey baster. Make sure it is properly sanitized. Pull a sample and squirt into a tube (the tube your hydrometer came in works great). Place the hydrometer in the tube and fill until the hydrometer floats. Don't put the sample back in, drink it!

use one of the two thief's in the first post here

Thanks! I'll check out wine thiefs.

A quick aside about sanitization: do you need to re-sanitize this thing every time you take a sample? If so, do you just keep a bucket of this bleach solution around throughout the entire process?

Yes you should re-sanitize everytime you're going to touch beer. I would personally advise against a bleach solution, because you need to rinse afterwards and you may have bacteria in your water supply. I'd recommend getting yourself some Star San from the home brew store and keeping a gallon jug of sanitizer solution around.

StarSan FTW!

This is what I use, and it works with both buckets and carboys.
I replaced the plastic one a year ago with an extra long stainless baster from a kitchen ware store and it is awesome. But the plastic one from any grocery store works fine.



And



Here's what I do....

1) With a spray bottle filled with starsan I spray the lid of my bucket, or the mouth of the carboy, including the bung. Then I spray my turkey baster inside and out with sanitize (or dunking it in a container of sanitizer).

2) Open fermenter.

3) Draw Sample

4) fill sample jar (usualy 2-3 turky baster draws

5)Spray bung or lid with sanitizer again

6) Close lid or bung

6) add hydrometer and take reading

It is less than 30 seconds from the time the lid is removed until it is closed again. More like 15 if you ask me.

Probably less if you have help. And unless a bird flies in your place and lets go with some poop, you should be okay.

ANd then you drink the sample....don't pour it back in....

I use about 5 feet of tubing for my hydro samples. I can coil the tube into a small sauce pot filled with a scant volume of sanitizer solution (I'm an iodophor man myself). I wipe down the lid/bung of the carboy with rubbing alcohol, remove the bung (placing it in a coffee mug with about an inch of cheapo vodka just to keep things clean), stick in the sanitized tubing, suck a few feet of beer into the tube, clamp the tube, pull it out of the carboy and stick the bung back in. As Revvy said, maybe 15 seconds of exposure time. Then I just unclamp the tubing into my test column. I threw away my auto siphon about a year ago, I just use tubing now because it's so easy to sanitize.

How do you suppose i could go about drawing from a glass carboy, but the turkey baster isn't long enough to reach the wort, and the neck of the carboy prevents me from drawing any by tipping it. Shall i just wait my predetermined two weeks and measure when i go to bottle, or just poor some out. Doesn't sound like a good idea to disturb it and the 1" layer of trub. I suppose i could siphon some out with the ole auto siphon if i get desperate

meteorbrews said:

How do you suppose i could go about drawing from a glass carboy, but the turkey baster isn't long enough to reach the wort, and the neck of the carboy prevents me from drawing any by tipping it. Shall i just wait my predetermined two weeks and measure when i go to bottle, or just poor some out. Doesn't sound like a good idea to disturb it and the 1" layer of trub. I suppose i could siphon some out with the ole auto siphon if i get desperate

Click to expand...

Get a longer turkey baster.

Mine works fine for carboys.

The other option is a wine theif...but I hate those. I think they leak.

meteorbrews said:

How do you suppose i could go about drawing from a glass carboy, but the turkey baster isn't long enough to reach the wort, and the neck of the carboy prevents me from drawing any by tipping it. Shall i just wait my predetermined two weeks and measure when i go to bottle, or just poor some out. Doesn't sound like a good idea to disturb it and the 1" layer of trub. I suppose i could siphon some out with the ole auto siphon if i get desperate

Click to expand...

Add a piece of tubing to the end of the baster.

lschiavo said:

Add a piece of tubing to the end of the baster.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah I forgot about that, and I even posted a pic of someone's on here.

If the baster doesn't reach all you need is tubing or a racking cane. Just put it in, put your thumb on the end and remove and repeat until you have what you need.

meteorbrews said:

How do you suppose i could go about drawing from a glass carboy, but the turkey baster isn't long enough to reach the wort, and the neck of the carboy prevents me from drawing any by tipping it.

Click to expand...

I just bought this thief aptly named The Thief and it works great for exactly that purpose. I had 5 gal going in a 6.5 gal carboy and was trying to figure out how I was going to get some out to sample

Another question about sanitization now: with the diluted Star San solution, are a few drops of residue left on the thief ok to drink with my sample after I take the reading? I'm a little paranoid about all these cleaning solutions.