Gravity sampling from a small batch

[rilo0407]

I brewed a 1 gallon batch of pale ale yesterday. Just experiementing with some dry malt extract and leaf hops. I have a five gallon batch of weizenbier going and my method of getting a gravity involves a sanitised turkey baster and a 250 mL graduated cylinder. If I take that from my little one gal batch I will be wasting my beer. I really dont want to invest in a refractometer but I guess I could look for a skinnier glass cylinder. Is it possible to tie a string to a sanitised hydrometer and drop it into the one gal jug?

 

[scinerd3000]

you could do that but do you really want to risk contaminating the whole batch? go on ebay...i picked up a refractometer for 35-40 bucks. there cheap and worth it especially if you go to all grain(to check preboil/postboil/first runnings gravities etc)
if you do use a string...may i suggest something none-porous like fishing line. it may be a bit harder to tie but you can sanitize it more properly.

 

[vitrael]

I use a fermtech thief. Wastes zero beer and only costs $8 instead of a $40-100 refractometer. Infection? The sucker is coated in StarSan.

Whether or not you can get it into a 1G fermenting vessel will depend though. It's made for 5G carboys.