Opening Ale Pail to get SG samples

[nosmatt]

Seems like a pain to rack to a secondary, plus more equipment for ME to store, with little space to do so.

what i am practicing, once everything is in the fermentor, including the yeast, take my OG reading,then pour that sample in an empty bottle, and it sits with my fermentor. i can check progress if i wanted to at any time.
i left the first batch in the primary for 15 days and bottled, it was a very low gravity beer.

second batch is 3 weeks in, and gets bottled this weekend, and was @ .014 after 4 days. third batch is ~ .020 right now after 4 days, but was much bigger.


seems to me, 3 weeks in primary, move to bottle, and brew another batch.

shhhh, i seal my lids. i only take em off once, so i dont mind.

 

[ChshreCat]

The problem I see with the "satellite fermenter" trick is that it's not always going to be the same. Different volumes will ferment differently. Plus, you can make a 10 gallon batch, split it into identical 5 gallon primaries and they aren't always going to act the same.

 

[nosmatt]

good point.i will check @ the bottle too just to see how they compare

 

[mev]

Am I the only one that takes a sample from the spigot on the side of the bucket? What would be the drawback from this?

 

[ChshreCat]

Most folks just don't primary in their bottling bucket.

 

[mev]

Gotcha. I guess I have two 'bottling buckets' then. I put a spigot on the primary pail for the sole purpose of taking samples without disturbing it. I do use a better bottle as a secondary though.