Hydrometers are cool

[kriso77]

Curiosity got the best of me this morning. I'm working on a Bavarian Wheat extract kit. I haven't been seeing any activity, so I decided to take a hydrometer reading this morning, a messy task in itself for a noob. I figure I've got about 7 days left until bottling. The reading after temperature adjustments came out to 1.0162. The instructions that came with the kit said that it shoudl end somewhere between 1.01 and 1.02. I've already found that some of the kit instructions are not completely accurate, so I thought I'd throw the reading up here to see if my beer is heading in the right direction (my belly to be more precise). I did taste it, and it certainly had a semi stale beerlike taste to it.

 

[bradsul]

I would think that might be a little bit too high yet for a wheat beer. Check it again in 2 days and see if it has changed. If not I'd say you're good to bottle when you planned to. Otherwise I would wait until the SG has stabilized so as to avoid bottle bombs.

 

[david_42]

Some times, I'll leave the hydrometer in the sample & just watch it drop. But, the three day test is the way to be certain.

 

[malkore]

a spraybottle of star-san makes hydrometer sanitizing a snap. 8 years ago I used to skip hydro readings cuz they seemed like an invitation for infection, or beer loss if using a sample cylinder.

but no longer do I fear it!