Giving advice

[zoebisch01]

Personally, wrt Hydrometers I think they are crucial for developing recipes from scratch. I do some off-the-wall stuff and without a Hydrometer to let me know my actual OG I am flying blind. Not that I can't do it, but when I want to adjust a recipe I consider it very important. Plus it's sweet to go from what the recipe predicts to see it spot on in your kettle , or sometimes not-so-sweet when the ingredients you use didn't give you what you were expecting. This affects all aspects of the brew, granted it might not be crucial if it's a point or two, etc. Once a recipe is time tested and you are familiar with it, there is no real need. It all depends on how consistent one wants to be. I rarely use my Hydrometer on a tested recipe. I might check my OG if I feel something went wrong in the process.

 

[jgln]

Bad analogy, A hydrometer won't tell you how much to put in just tells you how much you already put in so it's not going to change the out come at all.
I use a hydrometer for an O.G. but rarely take a final. I just rely on experience, if the yeast has not dropped out it needs more time. I do take a taste before racking to the keg. If it's sweet I know I have a problem.

Well of course brewing is not exactly like cooking but I do believe the use of a thermometer in cooking is quite like a hydrometer in brewing. You can use both to know when you are done or you can use other observations instead. And of course I did not mean they (themometer/hydrometer) are interchangable

 

[jgln]

Bad analogy, A hydrometer won't tell you how much to put in just tells you how much you already put in so it's not going to change the out come at all.
I use a hydrometer for an O.G. but rarely take a final. I just rely on experience, if the yeast has not dropped out it needs more time. I do take a taste before racking to the keg. If it's sweet I know I have a problem.

Reading my reply again I also think maybe you misunderstood my point.


One method you know exactly how much salt you put in, with the other you know about how much.

You can probably give a more accurate alcohol content using a hydrometer. In my analogy salt in the recipe is alcohol in the beer. I do believe brewing is much like cooking.

 

[bsay]

I'd say a hydrometer in brewing is more like a timer in cooking (or like a toothpick in cake-baking). A hydrometer lets you know when it's done. Without knowing if it's done, then it'll be like the cake that is still gooey in the center. As for advice, luckily there are enough people posting on this forum that bad advice usually gets corrected or the good advice is suggested more.

 

[carnevoodoo]

it harms you not in the least if you don't bother taking a reading

Taking that line out of everything that has been said, I disagree. There are a lot of questions that can be answered by knowing a hydrometer reading.

Why are my bottles exploding?

Why does this beer taste thin?

Is my beer done fermenting?

The last time I made this, it had better mouthfeel, why is that?

And a lot more. A temperature fluctuation, a starter, a more viable yeast, different techniques and more will produce different hydrometer readings. Even in extract, if you add more water to top off a batch than you did last time, you rehydrate your yeast instead of pitching it dry, and you're going to get a different beer. Knowing where you start and where you finish is the best way to understand that. And exploding bottles from a stuck fermentation is certainly a potential for harm.


But you are all right. There are many ways to do things, and I know my methods differ from my next door neighbors. We all pick up habits (good and bad) and there isn't a single answer for anyone. I think that it is fairly responsible for people to answer questions in the beginner's forum like you are a text book. At least on common procedures. There are gray areas, of course, but some things are just best for learning and gaining an appreciation of the craft.

 

[carnevoodoo]

Well of course brewing is not exactly like cooking but I do believe the use of a thermometer in cooking is quite like a hydrometer in brewing. You can use both to know when you are done or you can use other observations instead. And of course I did not mean they (themometer/hydrometer) are interchangable

I think brewing is just another form of cooking. And when I'm roasting a chicken, I certainly want to know it has hit 165 or whatever inside for a good reason.

Knowing your final gravity is the same thing. You know it is done. There's no guess. Some yeast will get stuck and fall out and you'll think it is done and then you end up with a beer at 1.025 that is supposed to be 1.010, but you'd never know because your experience told you it looked done.

 

[the_bird]

Ah, but if someone asks those specific questions,

Why are my bottles exploding?

Why does this beer taste thin?

Is my beer done fermenting?

The last time I made this, it had better mouthfeel, why is that?

The answer is NOT going to be, "Whatever you do, DON'T USE A HYDROMETER!"

If someone is having problems with exploding bottles, the advice is always going to be "you better start checking your FG," i.e. use the hydrometer. Under the scenarios you laid out, the hydrometer IS the needed tool, trying to answer the questions without one would be like trying to frame a wall without using a hammer or a nail gun.

If you're not having problems, though... I've been checking OG just because I'm trying to get some consistency in my efficiency, but I haven't checked a FG reading in a long time.

Besides, I probably didn't make clear that I was talking specifically with respect to checking the original gravity w/extract brewing. If the number doesn't match what your recipe called for, it's much more likely you ****ed up the reading than that there's actually a problem.

 

[carnevoodoo]

right. but if someone comes with all of those questions, and the advice they got three weeks earlier was "don't bother with using the hydrometer!" then we all sort of look silly. You've been brewing a longer time. You know your practices. I'm really talking more about people asking questions about fundamentals.

 

[the_bird]

Meh, I don't think it's that big a deal. "You know how we said you didn't NEED to use a hydrometer? Well, kid, now you do!"

Fundamentally, I think this is much ado about nothing. I rarely see truly BAD advice given, and usually if it's something that would be considered controversial, you hear differing the opinions and one usually makes the most sense. Anything other than "good practice"-type advice is rare, and it's impossible to define "best-practices" given all of the different (and perfectly valid) ways there are to make beer.