Gravity Reading While Sparging

How can you take your gravity while you are fly sparging? I know I should cut the sparge off at 1.010 to reduce off flavors from tannins, but my running are coming out at about 120* even though sparge water is at 170*. Do I just need to adjust for my gravity for temp? Do I shut off my sparge while I do this? Thanks

It depends on how fast your flow is, but you could just fill your hydrometer tube up to the necessary level from the outgoing stream, measure the temperature of your sample, then adjust based on that. The sparge temp doesn't matter, only the liquid that the hydrometer is physically touching.

Rockweezy said:

How can you take your gravity while you are fly sparging?

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One word - refractometer.

lamarguy said:

One word - refractometer.

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+1 I love mine. have seen people take readings every couple minutes at key stages.

+2 The refractometer is the answer. While it can only be used to measure liquid indirectly once it has alcohol in it, it more than earns its keep in the processes that precede fermentation. Easy to calibrate and use, mine was also easy to buy- $20 plus $5 shipping from something like "Happy Fun Luck Trading Co." in Hong Kong. Just go to eBay and search. Be sure you get a refractometer that's designed for sugar, which will have a scale from 0-32 Brix (more or less)

+3 on the refractometer. I used it about 3 times during the sparge today. Sample 1 was 5 Brix (about 1.020) and tasted sweet. Sample 2 was 3.5 brix (1.013) and still tasted a little sweet. 3rd sample was 3.00 brix (1.011) and didn't taste sweet at all so I stopped the sparge there. All 3 samples were taken within about 3 minutes of each other. After topping off with unused sparge water to reach my pre-boil volume, I stirred and took another sample to check my pre-boil gravity. That was 4 readings within less than 5 minutes, and I didn't break a single hydrometer.

-a.