Hydrometer - selection

[Bullseye]

I have brewed enough beer now that I think that I need a hydrometer.. problem is, the local supply house (mainly wine) has a limited selection and besides, I just don't like doing business with them as they are clueless except for putting on wine tastings.. ... My choices are online brewing supply houses and the popular auction site.. I am still a beginner in most respects so what should I expect to pay for a decent hydrometer, and if possible what brands should I look for? Thanks

 

[Revvy]

The one most commonly sold with kits is the triple scale hydrometer.

The one that is under 10 bucks...although there are some fancy smancy and more expensive ones on some websites, you just need the basic one..

But I would get 2, they have been known to break.

 

[Arneba28]

about $8 is the standard hydrometer. Maybe a little cheaper. They are all the same just make sure that it is for beer and not distilled alcohol as the scale is different I believe. Your looking for one with a scale like 1.200-.980 or something like that.

 

[Arneba28]

too fast revvy

 

[Revvy]

too fast revvy

Trouble is there is no good picture of the standard one....That's really too fuzzy for him to see the type we're talking about...The main identifier is that poured metal in the bottom...some of them have different weight including red like the floating thermometers, but the standard one has a tip like I showed.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Is this picture clear enough?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Here's a fairly high res photo of my hydrometer:

 

[Revvy]

Are either of those the basic elcheapo one or are they fancy dancy ones that uber brew geniuses like yourself use

I'm actually surprised you haven't been able to fabricate something better!

 

[Yuri_Rage]

The first one (with the colored bands) is from a Google image search and appears to be a beer/wine hydrometer. The other one is mine, and it came with the cheap ale pail kit that I used for my first extract batches. It's a triple scale hydrometer, but I ignore everything except for the scale you can see in the photo. It works great.

 

[damrass]

The one I use is like $11 at Northern Brewer:

It has a thermometer built in so you can adjust for temperature.

And yes, they break fairly easy.

 

[HairyDogBrewing]

I have a precision hydrometer that reads from 1.000 to 1.070 by .0005.
The ones from my LHBS were all off by a couple or several points.
$20 from Austin Homebrew.