Hydrometer?

Hey all,
I started my first batch this weekend and well everything went great....until i got the the hydrometer. First off the wort was brown, very brown, and according to the instructions i had to look through the glass to the hydrometer to check the reading...

and as you can probably guess that didnt happen.

secondly, does anyone have a link to how to use the dang thing? If i dont use it, what do i miss out on knowing?

Thanks in advance!

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Hydrometer

www.howtobrew.com

It doesn't matter what colour the wort is.

Try this out for size http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

You're actually supposed to look at the stepped gauge of the hydro at the spot where it meets the wort. You need to familiarize yourself with what value each tick mark is. On mine, each line is .02 gravity points. So like, 1.020 is a bold line and the tick right above it is 1.018 and so on. Just remember, the lower the thing floats in the wort, the lower the gravity is. I've read it backwards once.

Not reading original gravity isn't that big of a deal if you're brewing extract only because the OG is calculatable based on the batch size and amount of extract you use. It's the post fermentation that you're concerned with to make sure it's done fermenting prior to bottling. If you have enough patience, you can pretty much leave it to its own devices and bottle way way after you'll really want to.

orfy said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Hydrometer



It doesn't matter what colour the wort is.

Click to expand...

oh wow...thanks for the heads up.

(and sorry, i feel kinda silly not checking the wiki...i guess i live and learn)

No worries.
Not many noobs do.
It is worth doing a little reading though. It's amazing how much there is to learn.


At least you didn't ask how do I know if it's done.
The answer to that is......get a hydeometer.

The only useful purpose of the hydrometer in beer making is to tell you when fermentation is finished. There are other uses that are in the "nice to know" group- attenuation, efficiency (for all-grain), and Alcohol By Volume (ABV).

But for an extract brewer, it's usefulness is being reassured that you won't bottle too early and have bottle bombs. If the beer is fully fermented (and the only way to tell is by hydrometer readings), then no worries with bottled bombs.

Wow, thanks!