Question on gravity samples

[joaoking]

I guys this is my first brew and was going to take a gravity reading. After I get the reading can I dump the sample back in the fermentation bucket? Noob question but I want to do it right.

 

[duboman]

If your sanitation practice is diligent you can but it's not really recommended as it is just one more way to introduce an infection to your final product and it's too small an amount of beer to worry about. Take your sample, drink some it so you can see how a beer matures and then toss the rest down the drain

 

[LovesIPA]

I never return samples to the fermenter. Too much risk.

I draw 100ml for a sample. A 12oz bottle contains 355 ml so you're only using less than 1/3 of a bottle of beer.

 

[unionrdr]

I use the tube the hydrometer comes in with this blue,hard sponge rubber ring from NB for $1.60 that forms a base on the tube. I sanitize the spout on the fermenter's spigot & the hydrometer & tube. Then take the OG sa,ple,record the reading quickly,& return it to the fermenter. I don't need to taste raw wort. No value in that. & as long as you clean & sanitize properly,there little or no risk. I don't think the nasties propogate any faster than yeast cells do. Never had an infection from it.
But when it comes to FG samples,I record the readings from it & smell/tate it. This gives an indication of it's final quality,good or bad. Not to mention the flavors gotten vs those expected.

 

[stevehardt]

If you use excellent sanitation you can dump it back in. I never risk it though

 

[unionrdr]

With proper cleaning & sanitiation,ther isn't as much to worry about as people think. Especially when the yeast will be dominating the wort fairly quickly. I don't think nasties propogate any faster than yeast cells do.

 

[LovesIPA]

I would actually say that the yeast are going to out-propagate and overwhelm anything else in the wort pretty quickly. Brewers have been unknowingly helping them evolve that way for hundreds of years.

But there is always *some* risk whenever anything comes in contact with the wort. Whether or not that risk is worth it to you depends on the value of 100 ml of beer.

 

[feinbera]

100 ml beer < 20,000 ml beer. Even if you return 99 out of 100 samples clean, you'll have wasted more beer wrecking that 100th batch than you saved returning the other 99 samples. Provided you don't start pulling samples until your beer is close to done, you "waste" a beer or less per batch.

Maybe your sanitary technique is better than 99% ... heck, maybe you keep your house clean enough to skip the airlock, and if you store your bottles upside-down, you probably don't really need to sanitize them before you bottle, beer is pretty hostile to most bugs, and, anyway, bacteria can't climb up the walls of the bottle ... it's your beer, you can skip whatever contamination-risk-minimizing steps you want, but in this case, the cost of dumping/drinking the sample is low enough that most people choose not to pour it back down and introduce another (probably relatively small) risk to the whole batch.

 

[unionrdr]

After all the beers I've made & done this with,I've never lost a single one. Hence my opinions...

 

[solbes]

I do not return samples to the fermenter. Sometimes I have thoroughly sanitized the hydrometer and dropped it into the bucket/carboy to take a reading. I don't trust that the plastic sample jar can ever get completely clean.

FG samples I chill and drink. OG samples usually get a small taste and then dumped.

 

[unionrdr]

I've even used OG samples to rinse out the flask after haveing tested & pitched the starter/rehydrate. Waste not,want not.

 

[OaklandHills]

I suppose that the sample you collect to measure O.G. could go back in the fermentor if the hydrometer and measuring vial have been properly sanitized. That sample would be unpleasant to drink anyway. Likewise, if all your gear is sanitized, you could do that with later samples. But I drink all samples I collect after fermentation is in progress, because I like to know how the beer in-progress is shaping up.