testing gravity in fermenter

i brewed up my first beer a week ago saturday. i made the surley bitter partial mash from northern brewer. things went pretty well. hit the final OG pretty much right at what it says on the site.

so now it's been sitting in the fermenting bucket a little over a week. it bubbled good for a couple days or so, so i believe fermentation was going ok. never opened it up to look and check it out.

am i over nervous about contamination? and if i'd like to take a gravity reading now, what do you suggest is the best method for getting a sample cleanly out of the bucket? i've seen the thiefs but haven't purchased one yet.

any help is appreciated. thanks!

1) You will always be over nervous about contamination. The answer is always "yes".

2) Not much wrong with taking a gravity reading if you are wondering how it's coming along. What I do is use the plastic case the hydrometer is in as a sort of graduated cylinder. Just sanitize it with starsan or whatever you use, and then open the lid, and carefully put it in the beer and fill it up, being careful to not get your fingers in there. pull it out, put the lid back on, and then put the hydrometer in the plastic case and read it out of there.

One of the good things about buckets... tougher to get it out with a carboy.

Go grab a thief or a turkey baster, and grab a sample! If you sanitize whatever you use and are quick about your business, you really have nothing to worry about.

you can use a racking cane or siphon tube just like a thief. Just sanitize it, open the lid, drop one end in the bucket, cover the open end with your thumb, remove the cane and hold it over your grad cylinder and remove your thumb. You'll get a sample. If you need more, do it again. Cover soonest. Don't return the sample to the fermenter. drink it!

Clean and sanitze anything you put in the beer and you are going to be fine!
In reality, even if you are sometimes a little sloppy it can be pretty difficult to contaminate beer once it is fermented, the "bad guys" do not like the alcohol and the low PH of most beers so don't worry too much just be careful!!

I just recently used a length of aquarium air hose to take a sample out of a carboy. I loved it. It fit into the carboy easily, it was long enough that I could just get a siphon going with my mouth and not have to worry about back lash. It filled the sample container slowly enough that when I had enough for the sample I just pulled the tubing out of the carboy!

thanks for all the info. i've been antsy to check it. see how it's going. crossing my fingers. i'm racking it to secondary carboy this sunday.

looking forward to my second brew also sunday. oatmeal stout partial mash.

Since you have it in a bucket, taking a sample is easy. Sanitize a one cup measuring cup and dip some out with that, keeping you fingers out of the beer of course. Or use a turkey baster, or a wine thief, or whatever you have that will fit in the bucket and has been sanitized. Doing that when you have it in a carboy is a little more difficult.

or use something like this http://www.brewballstore.com/ each ball is calibrated to a specific gravity number and when they sink you know you have passed that bench mark.

If it's in a bucket anyway, just sanitize your hydrometer and drop that in, read quick and you're on your way.

Oh, wait, that means you have no sample to drink.

... nevermind.

Maybe I'm just simple minded, but I would just sanitize the hydrometer and drop it in the fermenter. The angle of view will be a little off but so what.
I check my beer like that for OG (in the bucket) then check it before transfering to the bottling bucket. If I secondary I just drop it in the carboy.

i used the sanitized measuring cup. quick and painless. OG=1.041 roughly and now 11 days later it's at 1.010. looking good. thanks again for the suggestions. that just made my night.

newnick said:

Maybe I'm just simple minded, but I would just sanitize the hydrometer and drop it in the fermenter. The angle of view will be a little off but so what.
I check my beer like that for OG (in the bucket) then check it before transfering to the bottling bucket. If I secondary I just drop it in the carboy.

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I wouldn't mind putting it in an ale pail, but not a carboy. How do you get it out?

Really. Just get your sample before botteling, then drink it,same amout of sanitation. Giving 3 weeks. You kind of want to taste it anyways to get the gist of how it may taste later. I only have to sanitize the baster not worrying about the tube hydrometer or thermometer.

Yooper said:

I wouldn't mind putting it in an ale pail, but not a carboy. How do you get it out?

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Rack the beer into the bottling bucket and fill the carboy up with water.
I'm simple minded.