Beef Thief / Hydro Readings

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pearlbeer

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I seem to be having a problem. I fear it is the usual suspect, user error.

When sampling with my beer thief and placing the hydrometer in said thief, my gravity readings seem to be low. For example, with regular old water, and about 65 degrees, in a standard plastic tube thing, the OG reading is at or darn near 1.000, same water in the thief, and i read .008

This would explain why my OG is continuously low and the FG is as well - my ABV seems right on. Seems like I need to at 2-3 points to a reading out of the thief.

The physics professor in me (read: I have a business degree) says the the smaller diameter of the thief leads to higher surface tension and generally lower readings.

Yes, I'm doing my best to let the hydro not stick to the side, etc. Yes, I' reading from the top of the miniscus. Yes, my beer turns out pretty good. Yes, I should RDWHAHB. But, help me anyway! :mug:
 
We don't take kindly to cattle rustlers 'round here :ban:

If it's a problem, why don't you just use the plastic tube for your readings. Sure it's one more thing to clean, but you look so cool drinking beer from the tube :cross:
 
Very interesting find! I decided to try with my test jar and beef thief and the beef thief reads lower by about .002 as well. If you really want to find out which is the most accurate, you will need to get some distilled water at 60f. Personally, I'm satisfied with a close approximation. At least you can discount user error.
 
Interesting. Not too big a deal since I'm mostly concerned about relative values when it's fermenting but good to know.
 
Make sure you are spinning the snot out of the hydrometer when you drop it in. I had a similar issue when I was first using it and I started doing the super spin when dropping it, then I'll roll the thief between my hands. Also make sure you have it exactly plumb or it can stick to the sides as well.
 
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