Final gravity question

[roth_nj]

i am in the middle of my first brew...

i brewed it last friday and everything went great. it is a pilsner and i had an original gravity of 1.041


it was bubbling away like crazy at the beginning for a few days then slowly went down. its been at a pretty constant 70 degrees the whole time.i just went and check the final gravity because its been a week and the bubbles stopped a couple days ago.

the hydrometer simply fell to the bottom of the cylinder. didnt float at all. what doest that mean?

 

[BrosBrew]

you put in it your fermenter and it just sank? I'd say that means you have a broken hydrometer and glass at the bottom of your brew.

 

[david_42]

If you are using a cylinder and not putting it in the fermenter, it means you need a larger sample.

Another ounce or two is all it will take.

(yes, it could be broken. But it would fill up with beer if it was.)

 

[roth_nj]

i took some beer out of the primary to test it...

and its not broken, i used it last week and it hasnt moved since...


ill try again with some more

 

[Revvy]

Do you have a lot of sediment in the bottom of your sample vial? Yesterday I did an AG and drew a sample right after flameout and stuck it in my fridge, then I went to a softball tournament, and came back several hours later. When I took dropped my hydro in the test jar the darn thing stuck in the bottom, the cold had crash cooled the sample and it was half sediment...I did it several times and each time it sunk and got stuck...

I finally poured off the wort, washed out the test vial then poured the wort back in the tube...

 

[TheFlatline]

i am in the middle of my first brew...

i brewed it last friday and everything went great. it is a pilsner and i had an original gravity of 1.041


it was bubbling away like crazy at the beginning for a few days then slowly went down. its been at a pretty constant 70 degrees the whole time.i just went and check the final gravity because its been a week and the bubbles stopped a couple days ago.

the hydrometer simply fell to the bottom of the cylinder. didnt float at all. what doest that mean?

Drop it into water and see if it floats. It's possible it got stuck, or there wasn't enough of a sample to test. If it just flat dropped to the bottom, that would mean your beer was less dense than water, which doesn't seem very likely. It would also mean you had like 20% alcohol in your beer.