Hydrometer reading 0.85????

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

First time home brewer here, and I have a concern about my specific gravity.

First, everything went somewhat ok during the first portion of pitching the wort, no actual concerns came about until I transfered the wort to the primary fermenter. At this point I wound up with 5.7+ or so gallons of liquid in my fermenting bucket.

The excess came because the instruction sheet I was following said to add 3 gallons of water to the primary fermenter, which I did. Well, it turn out I did not burn as much water off during the boil as I should have, so I wound up with quite abit off extra water which I did not account for when adding water to the fermenter.

After a call to my local brew shop I decided to continue with the process as they informed me the beer should be ok, just kind of watered down. Fine, this is my first brew so it is more about learnign the process than acheiving a fine beer.

Now, my beer has been in the primary fermeter for 7 days, so I took a gravity reading and things seem off to say the least. The fermenter tempereature was roughly 63 degrees when I pulled the sample, so I thought the reading would be fairly accurate given the chart calls for 60 degrees tremprature to be accurate.

Well, as you can see from the blurry attached picture my reading I am looking at a 0.85?

Obivously I am doing something wrong, but I don't know what. The fact that I added to much water doesn't seem like it would create this problem since the water should have a gravity of 1.0 right?

 

[dwarven_stout]

Never seen that happen.

Try checking the gravity of pure distilled water. If it doesn't read 1.000 at 60 degrees (or whatever the calibration temp of the hydro is), then your hydro is off and should be adjusted.

 

[likwidbliss]

I personally think the paper in your hydrometer has dropped. Get another one.

 

[Greyhound]

I agree with dwarven; I'm betting the hydrometer is defective.

 

[CrazyHomelessGuy]

Thanks for the tips.

I just pulled the hydrometer to look closer at the paper and noticed a little bit of beer had made its way into the inside of the hydrometer. Upon closer inspection there is a 3 way crack in the bubble glass at the bottom.

I hadn't noticed this since this is the first time it has been used. Unfortunately it was purchased 6 months ago, so it is hard telling when the crack occurred. I will head off to get a new one today.

 

[dwarven_stout]

Yeah, the crack will do it.

 

[mudarra]

Thanks for the tips.

I just pulled the hydrometer to look closer at the paper and noticed a little bit of beer had made its way into the inside of the hydrometer. Upon closer inspection there is a 3 way crack in the bubble glass at the bottom.

I hadn't noticed this since this is the first time it has been used. Unfortunately it was purchased 6 months ago, so it is hard telling when the crack occurred. I will head off to get a new one today.

Beat me to it! I had the same thing happen, except in my case I was checking 3 different brews the same day. First two were normal, the third dropped. I sat the hydrometer in a pan of starsan between readings, and well, the bulb has starsan in it.

Next trip to the LHBS I purchased a few hydrometers, its nice to have a spare on brew day!