Hydrometer Reading in Brew Kettle

[scasey1972]

I am going to be doing my first partial mash with a plastic mash tun. I have the recipe setup within Beer Smith, and am electing to do two batch sparges at 168 degrees to bring my boil volume levels up to 6.41 gallons. I think I understand this process, after reading a lot.

The estimated pre-boil gravity is suppose to be 1.051 SG.

I have a hydrometer. If I place the hydrometer into the "warm wort" within the boil pot, then do I need to use the hydrometer adjust tool within Beer Smith to get an accurate reading? Or does the Beer Smith brewsheet take tempature into consideration? Obviously I want to hit my SG mark...or I will need to add some dry malt to get appropriate sugar levels prior to boil.

I am a bit confused on how to deter my SG pre-boil.

Thanks in advance for you advice.

 

[Ace_Club]

Ideally, you would take a sample from the brewpot and then chill it in the fridge to the proper temperature to take a reading. You can then return this sample to the BK since you will be boiling it.

 

[Yooper]

Ideally, you would take a sample from the brewpot and then chill it in the fridge to the proper temperature to take a reading. You can then return this sample to the BK since you will be boiling it.

Exactly! Or you can put the sample tube in a pitcher of ice water to chill it fast.

I wouldn't put my hydrometer in the wort for a couple of reasons- one, it's too hot. Any readings over about 90 degrees are notoriously inaccurate, even with the adjustment tables. (Under 90 degrees, you can rely on those tables). Secondly, what if the wort isn't as deep as you think and the hydrometer hits the bottom and breaks in there? Or you go to lift it out and it snaps off in your hand because of the heat/cold changes? I'd cry if I had to throw out wort! As a result, I never, ever drop my hydrometer into my beer/wort/wine/must. Take a sample, using a turkey baster or a wine thief!

 

[scasey1972]

I guess the other key questions, is how the heck do I measure my boil volume? I can follow the instructions of the home brew recipe, adding the appropriate amounts of water when I fill my mash tun and sparge twice. Should I somehow measure the amount I get into the pre-boil brewpot???

 

[scasey1972]

Yooper, what if I do not have a turkey baster or wine thief?

 

[Yooper]

Yooper, what if I do not have a turkey baster or wine thief?

A cup? A pitcher? But you need a turkey baster anyway to check the SG when the beer is finished- so get one from the dollar store!

As far as measuring your volume, the easiest way to do it is to measure the runnings. If you can pre-mark your boil kettle at 1 gallon, 2 gallon, etc, that's the easiest way. Another way is to fill your pot with one gallon, and mark your spoon. Then add another 1/2 gallon, mark your spoon, etc. Then you'll have a pretty good idea as to how much more you need to sparge.

Generally, when you mash in, your grain will absorb .125 gallons of water per pound. So, if you use 5 pounds of grain, you can plan on "losing" about .6 of a gallon. After that, you won't have any more absorption so if you sparge with 2 gallons, you'll get two gallons out.

A pyrex two quart pitcher is almost priceless when brewing! You can use it to measure the additions, the runnings, for vorlaufing, etc.

 

[scasey1972]

I have a pyrex two quart glass pitcher. I could probably take a sample with that and pour it into a plastic 1 gallon pitcher. That would allow me to cool the wert to sample with my hydrometer.

I will mark the plastic spoon as per your suggestion.

Great stuff!

 

[scasey1972]

Damn... I just read some stuff about PH. If I am not monitoring that, am I going to screw up my partial batch? If so, what do you use to test PH?

 

[Yooper]

Damn... I just read some stuff about PH. If I am not monitoring that, am I going to screw up my partial batch? If so, what do you use to test PH?

Don't worry about it yet! That's not to say it's not important, but when you're still using extract, you will get the bulk of fermentables from the extract anyway. pH meters are expensive, that's for sure!

 

[Yooper]

I have a pyrex two quart glass pitcher. I could probably take a sample with that and pour it into a plastic 1 gallon pitcher. That would allow me to cool the wert to sample with my hydrometer.

I will mark the plastic spoon as per your suggestion.

Great stuff!

You only need a couple of ounces for the hydrometer. Do you have a hydrometer test jar? Or the plastic the hydrometer came in?

You'll have to check the FG too, after fermentation, and it's not practical to sanitize a pitcher and pour in two quarts! You'll lose way too much beer!

Like this:

(stolen from the gallery- not my picture!)

 

[scasey1972]

I have the plastic container that the hydrometer came in, as I use it for storage. I probably can use that for now. However, I guess I need to order a hydrometer test jar. Learning... Thanks for the picture.

I have always tested my extract beer before pitching the yeast to get the gravity before fermentation. I have also made a practice of checking it after the wert fermented to get the FG and alcohol content. However, I have never checked the gravity during the brewing process. This is new.

I see how important it is to check it per-boil when you are doing partial mashes or whole grain.

 

[scasey1972]

Well...last night was the first time I brewed beer and absolutely hated doing it. I started at 7:30 PM and did not finish until 2:30 AM. It was a long night!

I recently purchase a plastic 5 gallon mash tun for my partial mash recipes. This was my first chance to use it. My recipe called for 2.5 lbs of grain (1 lb of crystal malt - 80L, 1 lb of 2-Row, and 0.5 lbs of Cara-Pils/Dextrine). Beer Smith suggested adding 3.13 qts of water at 170 degrees. I added the water, then dumped the grain in and stirred it. The temp was at 140 degrees. This caught me a bit off guard, and I was not prepared, so I had to wait 10 minutes before I had enough hot water to increase the temp to 154 degrees. I periodically checked the mash about every 15 minutes and the temp always seemed to drop to the mid to low 40s, so would just add a bit of water. After the hour was complete, I cycled the wort out into a 2 quart jar and recirculated until the batch become clearer. I took a sample of the wort and checked it with iodine. I have no idea what the results were of that test. I also cooled the same sample to test with a hydrometer. I was shocked to find out that it was only 1.015. That just seemed very low.

I then did two batch sparge rounds. The first sparge was with 2.85 gal of 170 degree water. The second was 3.33 gal of 170 degree water. I slowly transfer all the wort to my new 8 gal boil kettle.

I then added my boil ingredients, 2 lbs of amber dry extract, 3.3 lbs of amber liquid malt extract, and 4 ounces of malto-dextrin extract. I was afraid my SG was low so I added 1 more lb of plain dry malt extract. I guess I did not realize that I should have taken my pre-boil gravity AFTER I added all grains and extract. i tried to take it BEFORE I added my extract... duh!

My next problem was my stove had a hell of a time heating 6.41 gal of wort. It took FOREVER to get to boiling. I then added in 2 onces of Williametter (4.8%) for 60 minute boil. I also added Irish Moss at the 15 minute mark, and 1 once of Hallertauer (4.2%) at the 10 minute mark. It was getting very late...

I could not fit my new 8 gal pot in my sink to ice it an ice bath... This presented another huge problem - cooling the wort. I finally added some ice cubes directly to the wort and sat the pot outside in the snow. This brought the temp down, but it still took forever.

Finally at 2:30 AM I was able to transfer my wort to my plastic fermentor and pitch my Wyeast American Ale (#1056).

I hated last night... Disadvantages: large volumes result in slow boil times, more difficult to cool larger volumes, more energy to heat. I do not have the equipment to do this... Can I lower the water sparge water volumes? What if I do not do a full 6.41 gal boil? Is topping off your wort a good thing? So many questions..

Frustrated..........................

 

[Mysticmead]

since you are doing partial mash/extract doing a partial boil is not a problem. but you just learned a few valuable lessons.. one, you now know why most call it a brew day. a brew day can take 4-8 hours depending on the method and if you clean as you go. Chilling the wort. you either need to do no-chill (search for it) or get a chiller. either immersion or counter flow will work great. the most important thing to learn is, doing full boils on the stove is almost impossible. get a propane burner and boil it outside. besides, when you have that first boil over you'll be glad it was outside.

now, relax... you just made beer!!!

 

[Hex]

If you fill your sample into the plastic, hydrometer tube, be sure the wort is cool. DAMHIK

 

[scasey1972]

Since I do not have either an immersion or counter flow wort chiller, I am thinking about backing off my boil size. If I go down to 3.75 gal, I will still be able to use an ice bath in the sink to cool the wort down. Any concern with not doing a full boil? I still plan on doing partial batches with grain and sparging. I will still add extract. I will just do it all with less water.

 

[Colby]

since you are doing partial mash/extract doing a partial boil is not a problem. but you just learned a few valuable lessons.. one, you now know why most call it a brew day. a brew day can take 4-8 hours depending on the method and if you clean as you go. Chilling the wort. you either need to do no-chill (search for it) or get a chiller. either immersion or counter flow will work great. the most important thing to learn is, doing full boils on the stove is almost impossible. get a propane burner and boil it outside. besides, when you have that first boil over you'll be glad it was outside.

now, relax... you just made beer!!!

I'll add that a propane burner can be too good.

I got a 105,000 BTU King Cooker propane burner....I boiled off almost 3 gallons in an hour on my first round. I'll know to turn the burner down, a lot, on my next batch.

 

[cactusgarrett]

Years back when i did partial mash & extract only, my boil size was only 3.5 gallons. As long as you plan ahead and do the math (you're already ahead of me at that time since you have Beersmith), there is nothing wrong with performing the boil, chilling in the sink (or bathtub), transferring to the fermenter, THEN topping up to volume.

In my opinion i made some decent beer this way. Stick with it - it gets MUCH better the more experienced you become.

Of course, as time went on, i was all "boiling on the stove suxors!" and got a larger kettle... then did full boils... then built a mash tun... then went all-grain. It's a slippery slope...

 

[joety]

That recipe is not benefiting much from a partial mash. Crystal and carapils do not need to be converted, you could have just added another 1/2 pound of extract, skipped the 2-row, and not worried about the exact temp of the steep or sparging.

 

[WVbrewer]

Scasey, I was rereading your original post. If you sparged 2.5 lbs of grain with 6 gallon of water, you way oversparged. You really only need about 1/2 gallon per pound (this varies with mash thickness of course). So 1.25 gallon would be sufficient for the sparge. Just trying to help, Dave

 

[bullinachinashop]

That brew session sounds painfull! Just a suggestion, check this out.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/easy-partial-mash-brewing-pics-75231/

 

[Yooper]

That recipe is not benefiting much from a partial mash. Crystal and carapils do not need to be converted, you could have just added another 1/2 pound of extract, skipped the 2-row, and not worried about the exact temp of the steep or sparging.

This is what occurred to me, too. Your OG of the runnings was only 1.015 because you didn't have any malt to convert anyway in there, except for one pound of grain.

If you're going to continue with a full boil, you need to remember this:

1.5 quarts of pound per grain for the mash.
No more than .5 gallon (2 quarts) of water per pound of grain for the sparge.
Add water to get to your boil volume if needed.

As you found, it's very difficult to chill 5 gallons of boiling wort in 20 minutes without a chiller, and it's very difficult for most stoves to boil 6 gallons of wort. That's why so many people who brew in their kitchens start with 3 gallons and then top off with water at the end.

I personally think you get better beer with a full boil, if it's possible.