Hydrometer Samples

[McCuckerson]

Do you guys every clean your hydrometer with starsan and float it in your bucket and/or BK to take a reading?

 

[Revvy]

Nope, seems to me it's hard enough to read the meniscus holding the hydro jar up to my eyeline, let alone trying to read in in a bucket, especially with foam or krausen floating around it.

 

[McCuckerson]

Right, I hate how it hangs on the sides of the tube though. Sampling is really something I have to work on.

 

[bolts]

I do when I'm trying to get a ballpark number to figure out if I can raise the temp for a diacytel rest. It's easy enough to read within a couple points. I also use a finishing hydrometer which has much wider graduations.

 

[Revvy]

Right, I hate how it hangs on the sides of the tube though. Sampling is really something I have to work on.

Just give the hydrometer a little spin, or tap the hydro test jar and it will dislodge it and break up any surface tension/co2 that is causing it to cling.

 

[RM-MN]

If you float your hydrometer in the bucket, the sample you drink is awfully small. Put it in a tube to read the hydrometer and you have to drink it as it is a potential infection to pour it back into the fermenter so you have to drink it.

 

[BrewThruYou]

I use a test jar. Trying to find one made of glass because my plastic one looks awful now.

 

[H-ost]

I keep both my test jar and hydrometer sanitized until I use them, rarely do I dump the sample back in but I have before.