Hydrometer reading

I am wondering, does a colder temperature of a lager throw off my reading on my hydrometer? I know that 60f is when the hydrometer reads accurately but for every 10 degrees f I should adjust .002-.003...does that apply to both 10 degrees above and below 60f?

Subtract 1/2 at 50F.

Subtract 1 at 40F.

I read a reading of 1.022, and it was at 30C (86F?) and my hydrometer is calibrated at 20C (68F?) so would I be right in thinking that the actual OG is 1.04? I think I screwed up the decimal places... ugg help! Or is it 1.067?

Edit: Found a calculator online and it said 1.024... I really hope that the sugars hadn't yet evenly dissolved throughout the water cos if I'm right and it goes down to about 1.000, then that will make it around 3%ABV, which is piss weak. Would this be right for a wheat beer?

hmm, well first I think hydrometers are usually calibrated to 60*F or 15.5~C

But yeah 1.024 is really low. 1.04X to 1.06X would be okay for a wheat. Better yet why don't you tell us what you put in it. Cause if you didn't put in enough fermentables, well then yes 1.024 may be right and yes this will be a weak beer.

JeanLucD said:

I read a reading of 1.022, and it was at 30C (86F?) and my hydrometer is calibrated at 20C (68F?) so would I be right in thinking that the actual OG is 1.04? I think I screwed up the decimal places... ugg help! Or is it 1.067?

Edit: Found a calculator online and it said 1.024... I really hope that the sugars hadn't yet evenly dissolved throughout the water cos if I'm right and it goes down to about 1.000, then that will make it around 3%ABV, which is piss weak. Would this be right for a wheat beer?

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Did you mix the wort thoroughly before taking the reading? If not, you could be getting the reading of the top-off water which will be much lower than the true value.

-a.

Koko and Jean, you are talking about fresh wort, right? Not after it's been fermenting, and lowering it's gravity?

Some handy terms:

OG= "Original gravity", wort before yeast added.

SG= "specific gravity" , a generic term, timing excluded. So timing should be mentioned, like "SG after 3 days in primary" The OG is the SG, before fermenting.

FG= final gravity, when the beer if finished.

My question was about taking a reading a week after I pitched the yeast. I have an oktoberfest sitting in a secondary it is 3 weeks old, my OG was 1.060-1.062 at the moment it is sitting at 1.020-1.022 @ 48f-52f

Oktoberfest OG-1.061-1.062
FG- 1.016-1.017

I have a Budvar clone sitting in my primary it is 1 week old. The OG was 1.058-1.060 and the current gravity is about 1.022 @ 50f

Budvar OG-1.058-1.060

I am not sure what my FG should be on the budvar, I can't seem to find my recipe with the listed specs.

So I am not sure if I am having a stuck ferment on my oktoberfest or what. I racked it a little early but I was told to let it ride out. I tasted it yesterday and it tastes just great to me, a little malty but I think I will wait out the last 2 weeks in secondary and see if it will work itself out. My budvar clone seems to be going great, i tasted it yesterday as well and so far it is the best of the 4 batches I have made, not too malty especially for being only a week old and it has some great fruity after taste too it, I am really happy with how it is turning out.

Well the hydrometer that I've got seems to indicate that it's been calibrated to 20C, since that's whats written on the side, but yea it seems that most hydrometers are set at 60F - most of the calculators on the net are set for this. I used a Munton's Wheat kit, with a Brewcraft Bavarian Wheat converter, which on the Munton's website says should be around 1.040-1.044 OG. I have a feeling that the malt and sugars might not have dissolved properly into the wert, cos I had put my cold water in first (because I had add it in small lots, since I was distilling the water first, and my distiller only does 3L at a time) and I forgot to put the malt and sugars in the boiling water first and mix it up, then put that in. Instead I put a little malt into the boiling water, added that water to the cooler water in the fermentor and then followed up by adding the rest of the malt and sugar. Hopefully this just means that my readings will be wrong, I really hope that the yeast still use up all the fermentables that are sitting there, despite not all being dissolved. I can see some sediment at the bottom of my fermentor - I only looked when I woke up this morning, which is about 10 hours after I first brewed - the sediment looks quite dark, like the colour of the liquid malt extract, and cos it's so early I really doubt it could be yeast, not to mention the fact that it is white. It could be something else though, just normal trub. Ugg, I really hope I didn't screw it up, :cross: