hydrometer question

Hi folks...have my first batch fermenting in plastic with airlock and it is now bubbling nicely. It will be a few days before I need to check specific gravity, but I'm wondering, is it acceptable just to take the lid off and drop a sterilized hydrometer in the bucket or should I siphon some liquid off into a jar and check it that way? Either way I'll need to open the thing I guess. Just a little paranoid about screwing things up, would appreciate any advice.

Thanks!

Matt

:cross:

1. There's absolutely no need to take a hydrometer reading until you think it might be ready to rack to secondary, if you are doing that, or until you think it may be ready for bottling, if you're doing a one-stage fermentation.

2. It's better to draw a sample into a test flask and take your reading there. Then drink the sample. That way all you need to sanitize is the turkey baster (or whatever) you use to draw the sample.

For one thing, it's almost impossible to get an accurate reading in a bucket (the bucket itself blocks your view. Also, it's a greater sanitation risk to do it that way. Finally, as you get more experienced, you'll find that sensory clues like what it tastes like, what it looks like, etc will tell you as much or more about the progress of your beer as hydrometer readings.

Did your hydrometer come with a tall, narrow sample flask? This allows you to take a reading in just a few ozs of liquid.

I always open the lid and drop the sanitized hydrometer in. The way I see it, you have to sanitize something that will touch wort, might as well just do the hydrometer which is pretty danged easy to sanitize. Make sure your hands are well sanitized, as well (thought hey really shouldn't touch the wort), and don't hock any loogies directly into the wort.

Baron von BeeGee said:

I always open the lid and drop the sanitized hydrometer in. The way I see it, you have to sanitize something that will touch wort, might as well just do the hydrometer which is pretty danged easy to sanitize. Make sure your hands are well sanitized, as well (thought hey really shouldn't touch the wort), and don't hock any loogies directly into the wort.

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To each his own--this doesn't work very well for me. I find that I can't see the scale on the hydrometer very well (my bucket is pretty opaque: I know that some are more translucent) what with the bucket itself in the way of a level view, kreusen gunk in there, etc.

I use a "satelite" fermenter (a beer bottle) which contains a sample of my newly fermenting brew drawn after I have pitched my yeast and aerated the new batch, but prior to closing the Primary Fermenters lid for the final time. This satelite sample should ferment at about the same rate as your primary batch and allows you to do hydrometer readings at will without opening your Primary Fermenter and risking infection. It doesn't matter if your satelite sample becomes infected as its sole role is to provide a sample for doing hydrometer readings, and infection won't alter the rate of fermentation. Once your fermentation is over, the satelite sample is discarded.

I just busted my first hydrometer on Saturday night taking the SG of my latest batch. Been brewing over ten years, and this was my first casualty. :cross:

Hey Walker, you got any hydrometers collecting dust that you want to dispose of?

glibbidy said:

Hey Walker, you got any hydrometers collecting dust that you want to dispose of?

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I've got one I would gladly give to you, but SWMBO seems to have grown attached to it for her wine. I think the novelty will wear off for her eventually, and then I'll shelve my hydro (if it hasn't already been broken by that time.)

-walker

Noskunk said:

It doesn't matter if your satelite sample becomes infected as its sole role is to provide a sample for doing hydrometer readings, and infection won't alter the rate of fermentation.

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this isn't true.
i believe there are plenty of bacteria and wild yeast strains that can infect your beer that will consume normally unfermentable sugars or even starches.

Being less than 10 batches into this hobby, take it for what its worth. I use the hydrometer at the end of fermentation as a guideline or verification that fermentation in nearing completion. So, getting a real accurate reading is not too critical IMO. I set my sterile hydrometer directly into the plastic fermentation bucket and just get a "close" reading. I pay more attention to bubbles out of the airlock and the "look" and smell of the beer.

Lou said:

this isn't true.
i believe there are plenty of bacteria and wild yeast strains that can infect your beer that will consume normally unfermentable sugars or even starches.

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I think what he meant was that it doesn't matter if bacteria gets into your sample, because you are going to draw the sample, measure the gravity and then immediately drink it.

True, some bacteria can eat sugars that yeast can't (I've had a gusher infection in a yeast starter), but they aren't going to do that in a matter of a few minutes.

-walker

Naturally, one of us apostates has to throw it in, so I will speak up:

Don't bother! Throw it away or put it aside and forget it, you will never miss it!

To me, this would be a big no no. Suppose you bang your hydo on the way into the fermenter and it shatters? Also, after 30 batches of beer, I still do not allow anything into a primary fermenting batch.

There is also no reason to take a reading until primary fermentation is slowed and the krausen falls back down. Then, while you are transfering to secondary, take the hose and pour some into the hydro flask and finish racking. Take your reading at that point and all that will have touched the beer is the racking cane.

I'll agree with sneaky, nothing goes in the fermentor until racking time. I wait until the bubbling rate is less than one a minute or a week, whichever is longer. Then I take a sample while transferring to the clearing bucket. If the gravity indicates the fermentation is stuck, I'll re-pitch.

Walker-- the person Lou was responding to said that he used a 'satilllite fermenter' in a beer bottle to guage what was going on in the main fermenter and that infections in his satillite didn't matter.

Lou is right, noskunk. One can't assume that the fermentation going on in the larger contianer is the same as what's going on in the smaller. In addition to the concerns he expressed, the smaller volume will be more greatly affected by changes in temp, light and exposure to excess oxygen.

Another option: sanitize your autosiphon, push the plunger all the way down, dip it in till the end is about in the middle of your fermenter and then draw it up halfway. Remove the siphon (put the end in a beer glass to catch the drips) and reseal the fermenter. Use the contents of the siphon to fill the container (using a graduated cylinder is easist and requires very little fluid). It's easy, fast and long enough to reach into the fermenter (not all turkey basters can get all that far down).

My old man swore by a 2 foot length of 1 inch ID tubing. He'd sanitize the tube, put it in the beer and put his thumb over the other end and draw out a sample that way. I find that it was a real skill to get that done in one step--- I couldn't get a tight enough seal to hold in the beer.

Or just don't worry about it.

A regular sized beer @ ~70' for 1 week in primary, 2 in secondary is ample. I go by my carb lock, not a hydrometer.

kornkob said:

Walker-- the person Lou was responding to said that he used a 'satilllite fermenter' in a beer bottle to guage what was going on in the main fermenter and that infections in his satillite didn't matter.

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You're absolutely right.

I read the quoted comment:

Noskunk said:

It doesn't matter if your satelite sample becomes infected as its sole role is to provide a sample for doing hydrometer readings, and infection won't alter the rate of fermentation.

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And make a bad assumption about what "satelite" meant in that context.

GUILTY of not reading the whole thread. :cross:

Oh-- and jsut to chime in on Cheesey's comment: using the airlock and behavior of the beer as a guideline is really the way to go. The only reason to use a hydrometer, really, is if you are curious about the final ABV (or if every other person that tries your beer asks what the ABV is). That's really the only reason I track it at all.

I use FG as a critical component of determining how consistent my process is from batch to batch of the same recipe, as well as learning how changing different parameters of that process (such as mash schedule) affect things. Admittedly, not everybody is interested in that, some just like making beer without getting in to those details. Everybody thinks hydrometers are only used for determining when fermentation has stopped, but that's just one aspect of what a hydrometer can tell you. I pretty much know, like most people here, when my fermentation has stopped, and if that's all you want to know then I agree a hydrometer is pretty much superfluous.

And with all due respect, I'd love to see somebody shatter a hydrometer on the side of a plastic bucket full of beer. Further, if you're capable of sanitizing a racking cane or a hose, you're capable of sanitizing a hydrometer

I'm so clumsy, I'm capable of breaking almost anything on almost anything. How dare you!!??

Dont throw out your hydrometer, just use it as a urinometer...the specific gravity of urine is 1.015-1.025...

Hey guys, newb here, been lurking for a while and I was wondering about how to take a sample.
Sorry for hijacking BTW
I am going to use a plastic bucket and do a one stage ferm, it has a spigot for bottling at the bottom, could I take the sample from there so that way I don't have to open the top and rick infection?

Is the Hydrometer that glass thing in the plastic tube with the numbers on it?

Hi,

I have a similar question, not sure if it has been answered already. I'm using a home brew kit (just a can of beer stuff, nowt too hard) for my first brew. I have a barrel with airlock.

however a mate said that you shouldn't let air get to the brew, which is what i assume the airlock is for > letting out CO2 and stopping air getting in.

so i need to check my SG over 2 days apprently to see when it's ready to bottle, but how do i do this without taking the lid of the barrell and exposing it to air? or do i just take off the lid and expose it to air then replace lid till next day? (will that efffect it at all?)

I'm fermenting at 23 C in a water bath. if that helps you. been going 3 days now, tihnk i'm expected to go 5 days or so at that temp.

cheers

Monkey

You really dont "need" to check the gravity to see if it is done. If you are doing one stage fementation, leave it in the bucket for 10 days to two weeks. If you are doing two stage fermentation, leave it in primary for a week then transfer to secondary for two weeks. Take a gravity reading before you bottle. If it is higher then youexpect, let it ferment a little longer and check again, but it will probably be done.

Hydrometers are useful but dont let them control you.

- magno

PS. grego, I wouldnt take a sample from the spigot. There would be way too much sediment.