Gravity Readings -- Leave it in!

[newbies13]

Pretty new to brewing, but had a thought...

So everyone is always asking about when to take gravity readings for various things, and how it is a better indicator of fermentation, etc. etc.

It seems like everyone steals a bit of beer from their carboy though, and then takes a reading with that. Why not put the hydometer into the car boy and leave it there for easy readings? Then take it out right before you move your beer to 2nd fermentation or bottling container, etc.

Thoughts?

The only downside I can think of at the moment is difficulty getting it back out, but a piece of sanitized fishing line attached to your airlock would prob do the trick.

 

[Dave1096]

The hydrometer would most likely tilt over to one side. When you take a reading you're supposed to spin the hydrometer to center it in the sample vile. Can't do that in a carboy....not to mention it would be covered by krausen.

 

[beergolf]

The krausen would cover it up with junk and you would not be able to see anything.

The other problem is... what happens when you have several brews going at the same time like most of us. I have five batches at various stages of fermentation. Do I buy 5 hydrometers?

It is no big deal to take a quick gravity reading.

 

[newbies13]

Ahh yeah didn't even think of that... Fail idea.

 

[Yooper]

The krausen would cover it up with junk and you would not be able to see anything.

The other problem is... what happens when you have several brews going at the same time like most of us. I have five batches at various stages of fermentation. Do I buy 5 hydrometers?

It is no big deal to take a quick gravity reading.

Worse than not being able to see it and read it at eye level- what if it hits the side of the carboy and breaks?!?! Drinking glass wouldn't be my way to enjoy my homebrew.

Some people buy wine thief type of samplers, and you can put the sample right back in the fermenter if you hate to lose any beer.

Or, don't take so many readings. Take a reading at the beginning (OG). Then, once all signs of activity end and the beer is clear, and it's been at least 14 days, take another reading. If it's at an expected level, and the beer is clear, it's done. Drink that sample, and you're all set to bottle. That's about a "loss" of 3 ounces of beer, which you've drank so it's not a loss.

 

[ShinyBuddha]

After two weeks, use a refractometer, take a 1/4 teaspoon sample, record the reading, after 3 more days take a 1/4 teaspoon sample, record the reading. Use a calculator to take in the alcohol bias and get a true reading.

If near where expected fg is supposed to be, pull a full sample for hydrometer reading, track and keg.

 

[choosybeggar]

One more reason hydrometer in carboy won't work (and a reason for falsely high SG measurements with standard technique). CO2 bubbles adhere to the hydrometer, increasing buoyancy and resulting in a falsely high SG reading. I degas samples (rapidly rotate a wire whisk in sample) prior to pouring into float tube.

 

[Stauffbier]

Or, don't take so many readings. Take a reading at the beginning (OG). Then, once all signs of activity end and the beer is clear, and it's been at least 14 days, take another reading. If it's at an expected level, and the beer is clear, it's done. Drink that sample, and you're all set to bottle. That's about a "loss" of 3 ounces of beer, which you've drank so it's not a loss.

This is my exact process.

 

[bwalcottayers]

I use buckets and will sanitize the hydrometer and put it right in the bucket when the wort is cooled. After all the fermentation is done, I'll do the same thing just before bottling/kegging. This has worked fine for me.

 

[Weezy]

beer bug!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/parasitx/the-beerbugtm-digital-hydrometer

 

[terrapinj]

haven't heard much of people using these but they have been discussed here before

not exact but should give a general idea of gravity

http://www.brewballstore.com/

 

[eric19312]

Worse than not being able to see it and read it at eye level- what if it hits the side of the carboy and breaks?!?! Drinking glass wouldn't be my way to enjoy my homebrew.

Some people buy wine thief type of samplers, and you can put the sample right back in the fermenter if you hate to lose any beer.

Or, don't take so many readings. Take a reading at the beginning (OG). Then, once all signs of activity end and the beer is clear, and it's been at least 14 days, take another reading. If it's at an expected level, and the beer is clear, it's done. Drink that sample, and you're all set to bottle. That's about a "loss" of 3 ounces of beer, which you've drank so it's not a loss.

+2 this is my system now that I am using a glass carboy for primary...it works really well in a carboy where you can see the krausen fall and the turbidity clear.

In a bucket I do/did pretty much the same thing except usually give it 3 weeks, open it to see if it looks relatively clear from the top, take a sample (I have a thief now but used to use a 1/2 cup stainless steel kitchen ladle) and if FG is in expected range proceed to bottling. With 30 batches bottled I've yet to see a FG after as little as 2 weeks that that didn't satisfy me as being close enough to expected to bottle.

 

[kal]

Or, don't take so many readings. Take a reading at the beginning (OG). Then, once all signs of activity end and the beer is clear, and it's been at least 14 days, take another reading. If it's at an expected level, and the beer is clear, it's done. Drink that sample, and you're all set to bottle. That's about a "loss" of 3 ounces of beer, which you've drank so it's not a loss.

You'll find that as gain experience you'll stop taking as many readings as there's really no need to.

As Yooper and others have said, you basically only need to take a reading at the start so that you know your wort OG and then at the end before you package for your beer's FG. You need those two to calculate the % ABV alcohol.

What happens in between those two points (how fast it drops, what the cruve looks like, etc) is somewhat irrelevant. The yeast is doing its work.

With today's high quality yeasts leaving the beer on the yeast cake is good thing - the yeast cleans up after itself. So for a standard ale fermented at around room temp the ~14 day suggestion is a good one - it's basically what I do.

There are many ways to do this "right" but here's what I do using an AIPA or APA fermented with US-05 at 66-68F (the beers I make the most) as an example:

Day 1: Pitch yeast. Take hydrometer reading.
Day ~7: Add dry hops to primary (if dry hopping).
Day ~14: Rack to 5 gallon carboy (brite tank) and add ~4g of gelatine dissolved in hot distilled water.
Day ~16-17: Keg. Take hydrometer reading.

The beer then spends roughly 3-4 weeks in a fridge at 32F hooked up to C02 to get carbed up to 2-2.5 volumes of CO2 before being put on tap.

Kal

 

[Weezy]

Very well put but I do want to note that there are good reasons to want to take intermediate SG readings...such as, stopping fermentation to preserve more natural sugars and flavor:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/

or for mildly sour beers where a partial ferment is desirable to preserve some simpler sugars for bugs (be they Brett, lacto, and/or pedio) also to limit bugs. (cold crash, rack to secondary, then add bugs)

or to gauge when to raise ferm temp based on % of attenuation to coax along some finicky yeast or to shorten a lager fermentation process.

 

[kiwibrewer]

I have a friend who uses a large open fermenter for his homebrewing. He keeps the Hydrometer in throughout fermentation. To counter the krausen sticking to the outer of the hydro, you could use a small spray bottle of starsan - and wash it off. He didn't have any troubles of it knocking over or sticking to the side. All in all it seemed a little like a good source of potential infection, however with good management it could work, and certainly does for him.

 

[whitehause]

I keg so the fg isn't as critical for me as it relates to bottle bombs. I let my primary run for 3 weeks, so if it ain't done by then it never will be. If your rushing a brew to get it bottled, then I could see a few readings at the end so you could get it bottled, but that's what a pipeline is for.

 

[martiniw2olives]

I rarely take gravity readings myself and my beer always turns out great. I am confident with my repeatable processes and always allow at least 3-4 weeks for fermentation. Don't get me wrong, I love a science project like anyone else, but to me it seams like a non-value step in the process in most cases.

 

[glick]

The only time that I really concern myself with my F.G. is when I am using a yeast that I haven't used before. I typically primary for 10 days and then bottle my ales. Some recipes are the exception to this of course, but I take them in stride.

 

[sgames83]

I lost a Holiday Ale this way. After the hydrometer broke in the carboy I briefly thought of calling it Broken Ornament Ale before my better judgement kicked in and decided to dump it.

 

[grathan]

haven't heard much of people using these but they have been discussed here before

not exact but should give a general idea of gravity

http://www.brewballstore.com/

Out of stock... looks like they are making a more robust set.

 

[newbies13]

That brew bug thing looks quite cool, sadly it looks like they are in dire need of a designer to polish the final product. It looks to be in super beta still with clip art style information and information just kind of plopped wherever it fits. Could be a really awesome product in a few more generations of updates.

 

[Likefully]

I use buckets and will sanitize the hydrometer and put it right in the bucket when the wort is cooled. After all the fermentation is done, I'll do the same thing just before bottling/kegging. This has worked fine for me.

Ditto, still very new to this, but this approach seems to work although i know the purists recommend against

 

[newbies13]

I use a regular, empty bottle of beer. Stick my sanitized siphon into my batch, fill the bottle, gently put the hydrometer in... Seems to work really well.

 

[stpug]

Hydrometers rely on several factors for accurate readings: hydro-calibrated beer temperatures, lack of majority of carbonation bubbles "lifting up" hydrometer, no "stuff" stuck to hydro weighing it down, good ability to view gravity scale. Once you lack a needed factor for an accurate reading then what's the point getting a reading at all? Not to mention that leaving a fragile instrument in a fermenter that can get very vigorous movement is just bad practice. If you put the effort, energy, and time into brewing/bottling a good beer then IMO it's worth "losing" a beer to a couple hydro samples to ensure your efforts are not wasted (besides, you drink the sample when you're done ).

I personally rely on a refractometer for my gravity readings both before and after fermentation using VERY small samples. I've been performing random comparisons of my corrected refractometer FG readings with proper hydrometer FG readings using two calculators (BS and ST) and have been finding very good correspondence between the BS calculated values and hydrometer values. The most difference I've seen is 1.5 points (0.0015) but generally it's closer (0.5-1.0 points). I am comfortable with the point differences I've seen. To me, they are within the realm of human error and are precise enough for my homebrew purposes. Additionally, they provide me a reading that I can use to determine if FG has been reached (i.e. same brix reading over a few samples spaced apart by a few days). To be honest, I have a much harder time getting a proper gravity reading on a hydrometer than I do getting the Brix value; so it's possible the error is less than I've noticed.

 

[jbaysurfer]

One more reason hydrometer in carboy won't work (and a reason for falsely high SG measurements with standard technique). CO2 bubbles adhere to the hydrometer, increasing buoyancy and resulting in a falsely high SG reading. I degas samples (rapidly rotate a wire whisk in sample) prior to pouring into float tube.

I think this is great advice that isn't as household as it should be. I had a series of beers that were turning out fantastic yet the FG readings were unusually high. One day I decided to de-gas the sample before I took the reading and voila. I was reading 6 pts too high just based on natural carbonation that occured in the carboy while finishing up.

Now I do it Yoop's way (once at the beginning, once at the end) but I always de gas if I think the FG is reading higher then it should be.

 

[kal]

Along the same lines I always put the same I'm measuring in a hydrometer flask and spin the hydrometer to dislodge any bubbles that would make it float higher. I do it 2-3 times just to make sure that all readings are the same.

Kal

 

[Ryush806]

haven't heard much of people using these but they have been discussed here before

not exact but should give a general idea of gravity

http://www.brewballstore.com/

I tried these a few times. Muostly worthless. They give you a very general idea but they are not very accurate at all. Don't remember the specifics because I gave up on them about two years ago but a ball would fall even though the gravity wasn't that low or vice versa.

 

[Hello]

beer bug!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/parasitx/the-beerbugtm-digital-hydrometer

Unfortunately I was not at all ready or equipped for home brewing when I saw this and had no idea when I would be. I missed the KS funding period and as you know, they have missed their deadline by 9 months thus far. I hope that they eventually get things right and start selling to the general public. I saw a review video here and it is really something I am dying to own.

I tried these a few times. Muostly worthless. They give you a very general idea but they are not very accurate at all. Don't remember the specifics because I gave up on them about two years ago but a ball would fall even though the gravity wasn't that low or vice versa.

Thank you for mentioning your experience. I was thinking that I wouldn't mind having something like that, but if they're not worth it then I will continue with my routine.

 

[ncbrewer]

As Yooper and others have said, you basically only need to take a reading at the start so that you know your wort OG and then at the end before you package for your beer's FG. You need those two to calculate the % ABV alcohol.

This is good for kegging, but for bottling, you really need two samples two or three days apart before bottling to be sure fermentation has stopped. You can probably get by without doing this, but safety comes first. I've read some accounts of bottle bombs involving lots of blood.

 

[kal]

Yes - it goes without saying that fermentation should be completely ended before you bottle (or even keg) anything. I really don't measure more than once at the end anymore unless it's a new yeast I've never used before, but I always like to leave the beer on the yeast for a good week or so after it hits FG to let it clean up after itself. You don't want to measure daily and then keg or bottle when it hasn't moved for 2-3 days. Wait a week. The beer will only be better.

Kal

Kal