Feeling a little stoooopid....

but how do I make my beer (wine) thief work. It seems so simple, but it takes about five dips to get enough beer out of my carboy to take a hydrometer reading. I thught I could dip it in there, cap the hole with my thumb and pull out a tube full of beer. NO DEAL. What is the trick?

Thanks!

P.S. I thught I could spell, too.

Are you jamming it all the way in the fermenter, and touching the bottom, or the sides? If so you are probably openning the release valve (the little pointy tip and the bottom). If that's pushed in it doesn't fill...All you have to do is lover it into the beer and it fills, there's no need to put your thumb over the open part. Mine's always filled on the first lower.

It fills automatically all the way up to the level you put it in...if you lower it halfway in it'll only fill half way.

Then drop your hydro in the theif....

Depend on how much headspace you have. It's only going to fill until the level is even with that of the wort in the bucket/carboy. Put it in, give it about 5-10 seconds to fill (I've never actually counted), then drop it in the hydrometer tube. On average I have to do this about 3 times in order to fill the hydro tube completely.

Edit: There are a couple different designs for these and they come in different lengths, not sure which one you are using.

Like McKBrew said, there are several styles. Does yours look like one of the below two? If so, which one?

http://pivo.northernbrewer.com/nbst...15724680B1F946D860080298E477?searchTerm=thief

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4356

Some hydrometers fit in the wine thief. If you have one like that, then follow Revvy's instructions.
If you have to empty it into the hydrometer jar, follow McKBrew's instructions.
My hydrometer is fatter than the wine thief, so I would have to take several samples to fill the hydrometer jar. I find it easier to use a turkey baster.

-a.

If you dont have enough room to fill it up enough then push it up & down in there a few times and it will keep filling.

Mine is different than either of the two earlier examples. I'll see if I can find a pic of mine. It is basically just a plastic tube , mildly sculpted to a baster-like shape(minus the rubber bulb), with a hole at the top and bottom and just by looks alone it would seem that you would dip it into the beer and when it fills up, cap your thumb over the top hole, pull it out and, voila!...beer thieved! Kind of like if you've ever used a soda straw in the same way to extract a sip without having to actually suck.
No pic for this at Homebrew Heaven, where I bought it, but the instructions are like I thought. I'll try again after this post and exercise a little patience and see how that goes. One of the above posts mentioned waiting for a matter of some seconds to fill. Gonna try that... , oh, and a little... , too!
Thanks all!
P.P.S. The holes on each end are only about 1/4 of an inch, so no hydrometer in the theif itself.

Suck.




Really.

It definitely takes a few seconds for the beer to enter the thief. I would say wait about 10 seconds and see how much liquid you capture.

Or you could suck it up like ollllo said, that would definitely work.

I decided to go take a sample and just before I did I thought...WWJD? What would Jeremy (Ron) do? The answer...Make it bigger! So I cut a half inch off of the tip and got much more beer into the baster type thing I bought (I'm avoiding calling it a beer thief 'cause after seeing the real beer thieves, I think mine is some scaled down wannabe version of a real one, and would piss off a real beer thief by calling it such). Anyway, the beer is great!!! It is my 2nd AG and I am happy! Only half as many dips req'd now!

Thanks again.