just got my first kit!!!

[jedi582]

So i purchased my first kit today. I asked the dude in the store if that was everthing in need, he said it was.........But i didn't find a themometer or hydrometer. I guess what im asking is do i realy need a hydrometer, i'm sure i need a thermometer but what about a hydrometer?

 

[Axegod]

You do not need either to make beer from an extract kit.
Thermometer: you just have to make sure that when you pitch your yeast, that the wort is not warm - but a little lower than room temp (this usually takes care of itself when you add the wort to the fermentor that has cold water in it.)

Hydrometer: nice to have, but not really necesary- you can always pick one up later. A hydrometer will measure the amount of fermantables in the wort...in a kit, you add it all...so you probably won't be adding more if you want to increase the gravity.....the other thing it is used for is to measure final gravity: detemines when fermentation is complete if the reading has not changed in 3 days. This can also be detemined without a hydrometer.

Cheers.

No worries man.

Cheers.

 

[Axegod]

PS:Check this out for some further info:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/index.html

 

[disaffected]

Congratulations on acquiring your beer-brewing kit. For whatever it's worth, I didn't find the thermometer that came with my kit to be especially useful. It's a glass alcohol thermometer, and quite fragile, and I didn't really want to use it around my wort. I've put it in my darkroom, where an extra thermometer for measuring solution temperatures comes in very handy. I just used my digital meat probe (sanitized, of course), to measure my wort temp before pitching the yeast.

I like my hydrometer. Yes, it's true you don't really need one, but I recorded my OG, and I'll take another reading in a day or so. I just like the idea of tracking the gravity of my beer so that, over time, I'll come to understand how it relates to the progress of fermentation and the final alcohol content, and so forth. Also because I'm an inveterate note-taker anyway.

 

[jedi582]

You do not need either to make beer from an extract kit.
Thermometer: you just have to make sure that when you pitch your yeast, that the wort is not warm - but a little lower than room temp (this usually takes care of itself when you add the wort to the fermentor that has cold water in it.)

Hydrometer: nice to have, but not really necesary- you can always pick one up later. A hydrometer will measure the amount of fermantables in the wort...in a kit, you add it all...so you probably won't be adding more if you want to increase the gravity.....the other thing it is used for is to measure final gravity: detemines when fermentation is complete if the reading has not changed in 3 days. This can also be detemined without a hydrometer.

well its a has some steeping malts. am i still alright without a hydrometer?

 

[Fatabbot]

well its a has some steeping malts. am i still alright without a hydrometer?

You need a thermometer then to make sure you steep at the correct temps....

 

[SteveM]

Neither is altogether essential. I have a "stick on" thermometer on the side of my primary fermenter for use only in making sure it is safe to pitch yeast, but you could do that by feel. I don't bother with measuring temperatures for steeping grains. This may introduce a slight bit of variability in my processes, but nothing objectionable. Just take the grains out well before the boiling starts. This is easy to get a visual feel for. And I used a hydrometer for my first batch but never since. I did not believe that I was getting accurate readings anyway, and again, you can figure out when to bottle or move to a secondary (or tertiary) fermenter just by watching air lock activity.

 

[the_bird]

You might invest in a decent digital probe thermometer (about $20), it helps you get a precise reading when brewing and it's very useful for cooking. You really don't want to steep at too high a temp, if you go from 150-155 to 170, you'll start extracting a lot of tannins.

Lots of people don't use hydrometers, but as a newbie I think it's worth the $7 or $8. It's a tool that you ought to know how to use, even if you ultimately decide to put it away. It's how you can tell definatively that your brew is ready to bottle, and it's the best way to tell for sure if you ever think you've got a stuck fermentation. I'm pretty sure even Walker-san owns a hydrometer.

 

[Muntzster]

I use mine quite frequently.