Broken hydrometer..

[BlackNotch]

..and my HBS is closed on Mondays!!!

I was planning on brewing today since I'm off, but while cleaning my hydrometer last night, it shattered. Should go ahead and brew? I'm doing a holiday ale that needs to sit a while and I'd like it to be done by Christmas. Where else could I get a hydrometer?

 

[Yooper]

Is it an extract batch? If it is, you don't have to worry too much because you really can't miss your gravity with extract. You can go ahead and brew, and get another hydrometer when you get the chance. It's important to check it when the beer is finished fermenting to ensure it's completely done, but not so important before that.

 

[hammacks]

+1 to what Yooper says. If you can't get by without one, save a sample of wort in your fridge until you can get another.

 

[BlackNotch]

It's an AG batch, I was actually thinking of saving a sample and testing it at a later time. Petco has hydrometers for testing salt levels in aquariums, they look exactly the same. I may run over there later.

 

[Yooper]

It's an AG batch, I was actually thinking of saving a sample and testing it at a later time. Petco has hydrometers for testing salt levels in aquariums, they look exactly the same. I may run over there later.

If you pretty darn sure of your efficiency, you could go ahead and brew. My efficiency is almost always the same, so maybe I'd chance it. The only concern I'd have is to either have super low or high efficiency, and that would screw up the hopping.

I forgot about hydrometers at pet stores- I assume they are about the same, so that would work, I think!

 

[reefwreak]

Hydrometers from a pet store will be identical, but be sure to check the calibrated temperatures. For salt water, they're usually calibrated for the 70s, dunno if beer ones are the same or lower. Otherwise they're the same, and will give you your sG readings no problem.

 

[Bobby_M]

Yup, I used an aquarium hydrometer for at least a year and yeah, mine was calibrated to 70F. Frankly, I liked that better since it's what I chill to anyway.

 

[BlackNotch]

I got one for $4. It's a lot smaller than the one I had, but it should work.

 

[Brickhouse]

I imagine you have a scale? If so, you don't need a hydrometer.

 

[hammacks]

Are you thinking mass over volume to determine density?

If anyone is interested, find your mass in kg divided by volume in liters. That is your density. Specific gravity is a fluids density divided by waters density, which is about 1kg/L, so your just dividing by one.

Is this how you do it Brickhouse?

 

[Brickhouse]

No, I didn't even think of that. The one time I needed to do it I stabilized the temperatures of a gallon of each water and wert at 60F and then as accurately as possible made sure the volumes were the same. I needed about a gallon because the difference in weight between the two is only a few ouces. Then I simply found the quotent of the weight of the wert over the weight of my brewing water and went with that.

 

[hammacks]

I'm going to give this a shot soon and compare to my hydro.

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Hydrometers from a pet store will be identical, but be sure to check the calibrated temperatures. For salt water, they're usually calibrated for the 70s, dunno if beer ones are the same or lower. Otherwise they're the same, and will give you your sG readings no problem.

Yup, I used an aquarium hydrometer for at least a year and yeah, mine was calibrated to 70F. Frankly, I liked that better since it's what I chill to anyway.

Agreed. Aquarium hydrometers are great in a pinch-for lower gravity beers. They only scale up to 1.060, which is fine for quite a few brews.