How do YOU avoid hydrometer reading losses?

[mikeysab]

I give everything 3 to 4 weeks in the fermenter, so I'm not worried about it being done. If I use a Better Bottle, or my Coopers fermenter (lid is clear) I can tell if fermentation is going, so no use taking a reading. If I use a bucket, I'll crack the lid and take a look after 3 or 4 days, just to make sure it's going. Luckily, I've never had a stuck ferment, so I never had to rouse yeast, or add more.

I check once on brew day, and again on bottling day to check ABV. If I"m really excited about something, I might take a tasting sample, and just check grav for the eff of it. whatever samples you pull, you should taste, so you can see the steps it takes for your yeast to make beer out of your wort. Then there's the occasional time out of desperation when you're out of Homebrew, and you're drinking beer straight from the fermenter. Or am I the only one whose done that?

 

[Desert_Sky]

how do I avoid it?

Thats easy, I dont use a hydrometer.

Hydrometers only make you worry

 

[Synovia]

If you're not sure whether or not your beer is finished fermenting, don't take a sample, wait another week.

 

[jldc]

I usually take only one reading that costs me any beer.

I take my first reading after pitching from the wort remaining in the brew kettle after I've filled my carboy. No loss there.

I take the second reading after at least three weeks in primary. If it's in the range that I expect, then I'm done. If it's high, which is rare, then I repeat in another week.

 

[BucksPA]

get "The Thief" from your LHBS. it's a dip tube, pulls out some wort, you throw in your sanitized hydrometer, take a reading, and then use the thief to transfer the wort back to your carboy/bucket. sanitize that too.

 

[charliec]

After I pitch the yeast, I draw of a 12 ounce sample and put in a brown beer bottle. When I want to check fermentation, there it is. Need to check the gravity There is your sample. No waste, it is all accounted for. It works for me YMMV.