Hitting my OG

[rockydog101]

Hi all,

Brewed first extract beer (BB Weizenbeer) last night. It's a "5 gallon batch." Put about 2.5 gallons in the kettle, followed directions (basically added 6.6 pounds of extract syrup and hops over a certain period of time.) Then poured it all into a 6.5 gallon carboy. I added about 2.1 to 2.2 gallons of water. Checked my OG, and it seemed to be around 1.047 which was my target.

My question is what is the best way to check an OG when your pouring all of this mess into a 6.5 gallon carboy? I tied two strings (one being a backup) onto my hydrometer and put it in the wort in the carboy, so I could pull the hydrometer back out. It made it somewhat difficult to get a reading, especially because there was some foam on the surface of the wort.

I'm just worried it wasn't read accurately because I still had slightly less than a quarter of a gallon remaining from the 5 gallons of water I bought. But I know that a 5 gallon batch isn't exactly 5 gallons, too.

Thank you

 

[Calder]

With extract beers, you really don't need to take an OG measurement. You know the amount of sugar in the extract and can calculate it reasonably close.

With a partial boil (add water at the end), there is no guarantee it all mixes completely, and you can get incorrect readings ..... which only leads to un-necessary worry.

I use a sanitized turkey baster to take samples and fill my hydrometer jar. You can buy wine thiefs which do the same.

An alternative is a refractometer, where you only need a few drops. I have a racking cane I can extend down a few feet, cover the top with my thumb and bring out a small sample. A word of caution if you get a refractometer, is that it doesn't read gravity in fermented beer accurately. There are converters which can give you a reasonable gravity number, and some people love them. I don't have confidence in them.

When taking a sample, never return it to the beer/wort. It just adds more risk of contamination. I like to drink the fermented samples; it tells me a lot about the beer in addition to just the gravity.

 

[mdindy]

beer thief to pull it out if the carboy and test tube to pour it in and drop the hydrometer in, cheep and can get them at any online store