Hydrometer

When do I use it. The directions say to do it before and after but is the before once I pour the wort in or is it after the 7 day fermentation?

You can use it once the wort and any/all top off water is in the fermenter to check your SG. Note that if this is a partial boil (where you are adding top off water), it is likely that your gravity reading at this point will be skewed unless the wort and top off water is well mixed. This gravity reading before fermentation is the original gravity (OG).

After you think fermentation is complete (I wait 2 weeks for most brews), you can pull another sample and take another reading. Do this 2-3 times over 2-3 days and if the gravity isn't changing then you know the beer is done fermenting. The gravity reading at the end is your final gravity (FG). For the record, I only take one FG reading after 2 weeks, if the gravity is near what I expected for a final gravity, I call it done. It's safer to take several readings over several days to ensure fermentation is complete and prevent bottle bombs.

Another note on hydrometer readings: the hydrometer is calibrated for a specific temperature of wort, usually 68 degrees. If the wort is warmer or colder than this, you need to use a correction formula to compensate. You want to get as close to 68 as possible though because the correction may be off.

Also, don't take your hydrometer readings in the fermenter. Pull a sample with a turkey baster or a wine thief then take your reading. Hydrometers are very fragile and if it hits a bottom/side of your fermenter and breaks, your batch is pretty much ruined.

I think that covers hydrometers 101.

After you have boiled and then cooled the wort - take a gravity reading, then pitch your yeast.

Then I would wait 2 weeks before pulling a sample, then pull a sample again 2 days later. If both of those gravity readings are the same, you've hit Final Gravity and can go ahead and bottle.

jaycount said:

Note that if this is a partial boil (where you are adding top off water), it is likely that your gravity reading at this point will be skewed unless the wort and top off water is well mixed.

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Yep - mix it well. If the hydrometer gives an OG that seems far off from what the kit says, it is fine, you just did not mix the top off water with the wort well enough. (And you need to adjust the hydrometer reading, as they are dialed in for use at 60 degrees) When using a kit, it is tough to not hit your OG within a couple of points as long as you use the right water volumes.

While you certainly can bottle your beer when the gravity becomes stable, I'd suggest you wait longer as yeast does not stop with just the fermentable sugars but goes on to clean up some other compounds that change the flavor of your beer. I now have learned that I prefer beer that has had at least 3 weeks in the primary fermenter and have gone as long as 4 1/2 now with good results.

Brewed my first batch ever last night. I did not take a gravity reading. Is it too late to get the OG now?

dcapozzi said:

Brewed my first batch ever last night. I did not take a gravity reading. Is it too late to get the OG now?

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I'd say yes it is too late for your OG now as your yeast should have started. I don't always take my OG either since I don't really care what amount of alcohol I get as long as the beer tastes good. I do take the hydrometer reading before I bottle to make sure it has fermented out all the way.

Dcapozzi - if you post the recipe we can figure out the expected OG based on that. Also we need to know your start volume, usually this is 5 to 5.5 gallons.

Thanks ACbrewer. I guess I should have started a new thread rather than asking my question as a reply? I'm new to forums. Anyway, I brewed a pale ale from a recipe (5.5 gal. start volume) with these ingredients:

Yeast: Nottingham Ale Yeast

Malts: Briess Sparkling Amber Dried Malt Extract (2.5 lbs.)
Briess CBW Pure Malt Extract (Golden Light, unhopped) (3.3 lbs.)

Hops: Crosby & Baker Nugget Hop Pellets (13% AA) (0.5 oz.)
Hopunion Cascade Hop Pellets (6.4% AA) (1.0 oz.)

So you say I can figure out the OG from this? How do you do that?

dcapozzi said:

Thanks ACbrewer. I guess I should have started a new thread rather than asking my question as a reply? I'm new to forums. Anyway, I brewed a pale ale from a recipe (5.5 gal. start volume) with these ingredients:

Yeast: Nottingham Ale Yeast

Malts: Briess Sparkling Amber Dried Malt Extract (2.5 lbs.)
Briess CBW Pure Malt Extract (Golden Light, unhopped) (3.3 lbs.)

Hops: Crosby & Baker Nugget Hop Pellets (13% AA) (0.5 oz.)
Hopunion Cascade Hop Pellets (6.4% AA) (1.0 oz.)

So you say I can figure out the OG from this? How do you do that?

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your OG should have been 1.036-1.040ish

dcapozzi said:

Thanks ACbrewer. I guess I should have started a new thread rather than asking my question as a reply? I'm new to forums. Anyway, I brewed a pale ale from a recipe (5.5 gal. start volume) with these ingredients:

Yeast: Nottingham Ale Yeast

Malts: Briess Sparkling Amber Dried Malt Extract (2.5 lbs.)
Briess CBW Pure Malt Extract (Golden Light, unhopped) (3.3 lbs.)

Hops: Crosby & Baker Nugget Hop Pellets (13% AA) (0.5 oz.)
Hopunion Cascade Hop Pellets (6.4% AA) (1.0 oz.)

So you say I can figure out the OG from this? How do you do that?

Click to expand...

Yes tipically dme is 41 points of gravity per pound of extract in on gallon or pppg (points per pound gallon). LME is 37 pppg

hops here add nothing to gravity.
DME =2.5*41=102.5
LME=3.3*37=122.1
total sugar points 224.6
divide by 5.5 (total gallons) is 40.83 - so 40 to 41. Notice Atom eyeballed that at 37-40

Anyhow your og should have been about 1.040 or 1.041. with typical attenuation, your FG will probably be around 1.010 (1.008 to 1.012 is a good range).

One last thing, there is brewing software out there that will do these numbers for you... But as crazy as it sounds, I enjoy doing them by hand...