Hydrometer and Thermometer

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Roflsaurus

Roflsaurus

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i am needing to purchase a hydrometer (or refractometer?) and i was wondering what people recommend? does it need to have built in thermometer?

also, along this same idea, i am needing a thermometer to monitor my brew kettle temps? should i just go ahead and do a weldless therm install into my kettle? should i buy one of the digital quick reads? get the cheapo kind that clips to the top of my kettle?

trying to make sure i purchase the right stuff the first time :)
 
Nothing to add as I'm a newb myself but I've often wondered how well the infrared thermos would work for home brewing??? Maybe one of our more experienced folks have some input on this subject as well
 
I bought a $7 laboratory thermometer at my LHBS. As a fellow noob, I wouldn't mess with anything too complicated right now, that's why the $7 thermo hit the spot for me.

For the hydrometer, I could be wrong but I would think you'd want something separate from the thermometer since you will have your hydrometer floating in some wort at some point during brewday. You don't want to have to clean it off and put it back into your pot.
 
I bought an infrared thermometer gun to try on my second brew recently. Make sure to try it out against a known temperature. My gun seems to be 4 degrees higher than an actual liquid thermometer. Also be carefull of where you are targeting. I can point it at different places and angles and the readings will change. It only measures surface temperature as well so be aware of that when using it to measure an actual vessel's temp versus the liquid within. That being said I loved it for this last brew. Won't be going back to a regular thermometer anytime soon.
 
I use a floating thermometer my wife bought me at the LHBS. It's been great so far. I just tie it to the pot handle & suspend it where I want it. I use a couple of twist ties like a hangman's noose to suspend it. I also use a Cooper's glass hydrometer that has proven accurate. I take samples in the tube it came in.
 
Infrared thermometers are incredibly inaccurate. I would not use them for anything related to brewing.

That being said, any hydrometer will do, so long as it reads in a scale you want (usually specific gravity, like 1.040) and you know the temperature it is calibrated at. (Mine is 60* F.)

For temperature, I use a long probe candy thermometer. For everything. Mash, water temps, hydro readings, what have you. Be careful with the floating ones, I broke two (once in the kettle and once in the mash) before I bought the digital candy thermometers.
 
any hydrometer is fine, dont get a glass floating thermometer unless you like having broken glass in your wort (did it.) I also have an infrared that I use to check the temperature of fermentation during the 1st 7 days, I find it more accurate than the sticky thermometers.
 
AmandaK said:
Infrared thermometers are incredibly inaccurate. I would not use them for anything related to brewing.
Click to expand...

"Incredibly" might be an overstatement, I certainly agree with the opinion that you shouldn't be using one for brewing. IR temp guns are at least +/- 1* and the measurement area varies with distance from the target.

I bought a floating thermometer for my first brew, but I wasn't too thrilled with it. Only the very tip floats, so you end up holding it or having to tie it off somehow. I'd recommend a decent digital thermometer like people have mentioned.

I'm also a complete newb, so take my advice with a grain of salt. I don't have any input on hydrometers because I don't even own one.
 
I have a "floating" thermometer but do not use it for the previouly mentioned reasons, not that it WILL break in the wort but it COULD break.

I have been using a cheap digital thermometer from Harbor Freight. I calibrated it to boiling water and found it to read about 3° low so I adjust my temp calculations!

Although a hydrometer is not really necessary to brew it is very handy to help to you "dial in" your process and figure ABV. I do not plan on getting a refractometer but there are some definite advantages if you don't mind paying a little extra!
 
Thermapen

You'll never buy another thermometer. Every other thermometer I've used in the past has either crapped out on me or read temperature inaccurately. A few degrees makes all the difference in mashing.
 
Roflsaurus said:
i would not be able to use a refract to measure final gravity?
Click to expand...

No.

Which is why I still use a hydrometer and a thermometer. Some refractometers actually only have accurate ATC between 86* and 114*... so those aren't even worth buying (the wort from my mash usually runs around 125*-140*).
 
Roflsaurus said:
i am needing to purchase a hydrometer (or refractometer?) and i was wondering what people recommend? does it need to have built in thermometer?

also, along this same idea, i am needing a thermometer to monitor my brew kettle temps? should i just go ahead and do a weldless therm install into my kettle? should i buy one of the digital quick reads? get the cheapo kind that clips to the top of my kettle?

trying to make sure i purchase the right stuff the first time :)
Click to expand...

I'm new to brewing too. I have a hydrometer, a digital thermometer and one of the cheapo dial clip on type. I watch the clip on type and when my kettle temp gets close to my target temp, I stick the digital in to get a more accurate reading. I calibrated my digital by sticking it into boiling water (it was within a degree or two) and then after cooling down, into my freezer ice bin. There's tons of them out there. Just find one that fits your budget and brewing style.
 
Technically, you CAN use a refractometer to measure final gravity - but you have to do a bunch of math to the value you get, and even then you're only arriving at an estimate of final gravity, while a hydrometer will give you an exact measurement of FG.

That said, a refractometer has a couple added benefits to all grain brewers: you can use much smaller samples for measurements. You can very easily take samples on the fly - so you can easily sample the gravity of your first runnings, second runnings, etc. You can use it each step along the way during your brew day to make sure you're making your numbers and adjust accordingly; either watering things down if you're TOO efficient (and concerned about that sort of thing) or adding some extract if you're a little shy of your intended gravity.

The only benefit I could see to having an all in one thermometer/hydrometer is that you could, all at once, get the gravity and temperature of your sample, so you can tell with a single tool and single measurement how much you need to adjust the gravity reading for temperature. Not really worth the cost, in my book, since you need a good thermometer for so many other things.

The thermometer in the brew kettle can be handy if you plan to use an immersion chiller - it's super convenient to just set up your chiller, put the lid on to keep any gunk out, and watch the temp drop on that thermometer.
 
AmandaK said:
No.

Which is why I still use a hydrometer and a thermometer. Some refractometers actually only have accurate ATC between 86* and 114*... so those aren't even worth buying (the wort from my mash usually runs around 125*-140*).
Click to expand...
ooh, thanks for the heads up on this one. much appreciated.
 
stratslinger said:
Technically, you CAN use a refractometer to measure final gravity - but you have to do a bunch of math to the value you get, and even then you're only arriving at an estimate of final gravity, while a hydrometer will give you an exact measurement of FG.

That said, a refractometer has a couple added benefits to all grain brewers: you can use much smaller samples for measurements. You can very easily take samples on the fly - so you can easily sample the gravity of your first runnings, second runnings, etc. You can use it each step along the way during your brew day to make sure you're making your numbers and adjust accordingly; either watering things down if you're TOO efficient (and concerned about that sort of thing) or adding some extract if you're a little shy of your intended gravity.

The only benefit I could see to having an all in one thermometer/hydrometer is that you could, all at once, get the gravity and temperature of your sample, so you can tell with a single tool and single measurement how much you need to adjust the gravity reading for temperature. Not really worth the cost, in my book, since you need a good thermometer for so many other things.

The thermometer in the brew kettle can be handy if you plan to use an immersion chiller - it's super convenient to just set up your chiller, put the lid on to keep any gunk out, and watch the temp drop on that thermometer.
Click to expand...
fantastic info here. thank you.
 
I now have a collection of 4 different devices to measure temperatures. Recently bought a taylor digital oven thermometer which I found was reading 11 degrees too high. I have a thermal industries (which makes thermapen) oven thermometer on order. I bought it because unlike the taylor unit, it lists a tolerance (1 degree F). I like this particular model because it also has a timer so I can simultaneously monitor temperature and timing on my mashes and boil. The drawback is the probe on the unit i bought is NOT listed as waterproof, so I bought an extra probe, figure I'll be careful to only put the tip into the wort. 20$ is a lot less than the $60 for the thermapen, which is not actually waterproof but only splashproof. I'll let you know how it works out.
 
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