chrispykid
Well-Known Member
So this weekend I brewed up my 8th extract batch or so. I'm turning out beer that's been solid overall, but I'm trying to refine my process so that I can go back to recipes with a pretty good degree of consistency. So far I've been pretty lax about taking hydrometer readings, when in doubt I usualy just let the beer do it's thing for an extra day or so before racking it.
But I decided I wanted to keep better notes and take regular samples. I've found that it's really tough to get an accurate hydrometer reading on an extract batch that I have to top off with water in the fermenter.
I've boiled about 3 gallons of wort, poured it on top of a gallon of water in the carboy and topped off with another gallon of water to make 5 and I take my reading of the finished beer, but the problem is that the water and the wort aren't fully mixed yet so the reading comes out extremely low. I tried to give the carboy a bit of a shake to mix it up, but once it's full it's so heavy I thought that risk of breaking it was too great. I'd wait a few hours for the solution to stabilize, but I don't want to give the wort any more time to attract an infection - once the wort is down to room temperature I want to pitch my yeast and be done with it.
Any ideas for getting a more accurate reading would be appreciated.
But I decided I wanted to keep better notes and take regular samples. I've found that it's really tough to get an accurate hydrometer reading on an extract batch that I have to top off with water in the fermenter.
I've boiled about 3 gallons of wort, poured it on top of a gallon of water in the carboy and topped off with another gallon of water to make 5 and I take my reading of the finished beer, but the problem is that the water and the wort aren't fully mixed yet so the reading comes out extremely low. I tried to give the carboy a bit of a shake to mix it up, but once it's full it's so heavy I thought that risk of breaking it was too great. I'd wait a few hours for the solution to stabilize, but I don't want to give the wort any more time to attract an infection - once the wort is down to room temperature I want to pitch my yeast and be done with it.
Any ideas for getting a more accurate reading would be appreciated.