So i stopped taking gravity measurements

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Do you still take gravity measurements?

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    101
I kinda like knowing the ABV of my brews so I always take a reading. I also like knowing if I had an efficiency issue.

And as someone who created an artillery of bottle bombs before, I like knowing we are all done if I'm bottling. I'm not doing that again. LOL
 
odie said:
SG is starting gravity I thought? gravity of the wort collected. so you can calculate mash efficiency or see how much potential sugars you were able to extract from the grains?
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Maybe I have been using the wrong terminology for 8 1/2 years but I think that OG and what you are calling starting gravity would be the same thing.
 
I always take readings for every beer I brew. I just like to know where I am at during the different phases throughout the brewing process. I take a pre-boil reading, then an original gravity reading as I am going into the fermenter, and then a reading or two during the fermentation process to get a final gravity reading. I like keeping track of these readings in BeerSmith and then I have it to compare when I brew the recipe again.

John
 
odie said:
I'm the opposite...for years I never bothered with any gravity measurements. I knew it would be beer when it was done. I didn't care about the ABV. I just made recipes and drank em...they tasted good. Whatever the recipe said the ABV would be I just accepted it.

Now I do OG and FG and even SG when I remember. More to see how good my mash conversion and efficiency is...

But in the end, the only thing that mattered then and now is how it tastes...
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I think maybe you are referring to preboil gravity??
 
I haven't read others' comments quite yet. Before I do, I'll just say this, which I'll bet someone else has too:

I don't always take gravity measurements anymore. Often I only take Brix measurements with a refractometer instead. :D


EDIT: Hi ho, Silver! ;)

Silver_Is_Money said:
I've stopped verifying my refractometer readings with a hydrometer. The Novotny Quadratic method for refractometers is getting me close enough.
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Ditto. For me, plus or minus 0.001 average on OG & FG is certainly "close enough". Novotny is the man!
 
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I take refrac measurements after mash to ensure I get the efficiency I expect. The next measurement is when I bottle; I take an hydrometer reading at bottling to check that nothing strange has happened. Also I get to drink the hydro sample which tells me more about the beer than the reading itself.
 
I just brewed a beer and only used the tilt for gravity. From here on out it's all I'm gonna be doin. Even ordered a tilt repeater.
 
I measure... at the start with my hydrometer. I want to know, generally, if I'm in the ballpark of the anticipated OG, because I want to know that my process doesn't suck unacceptably. I'll accept a fair amount of suckage, but even I have limits. If my beer was supposed to be 7% and I get a 6.5% beer, or even a 6% beer... I don't lose any sleep. If it is looking like it might be a 3% beer... I'd like to know that I really screwed it up, so I can address it next time.

And... I did buy a Tilt. And then a second. And I am a Tilt advocate. If you're willing to spend the $130ish... and don't expect it to be 100% accurate as to the actual number... they are FABULOUS. It is very handy to watch the gravity fall, and to know when it has leveled off and the fermentation is done. REALLY handy to have that info without touching or sampling anything. I would be a person that highly recommends a tilt, even at $130ish.
 
Baglorious said:
I measure... at the start with my hydrometer. I want to know, generally, if I'm in the ballpark of the anticipated OG, because I want to know that my process doesn't suck unacceptably. I'll accept a fair amount of suckage, but even I have limits. If my beer was supposed to be 7% and I get a 6.5% beer, or even a 6% beer... I don't lose any sleep. If it is looking like it might be a 3% beer... I'd like to know that I really screwed it up, so I can address it next time.

And... I did buy a Tilt. And then a second. And I am a Tilt advocate. If you're willing to spend the $130ish... and don't expect it to be 100% accurate as to the actual number... they are FABULOUS. It is very handy to watch the gravity fall, and to know when it has leveled off and the fermentation is done. REALLY handy to have that info without touching or sampling anything. I would be a person that highly recommends a tilt, even at $130ish.
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I'll save the $130ish and just wait a little longer....
 
Anybody ever used one of these?
https://plaato.io/
It’s an electronic airlock that figures SG using CO2 measurement. Wifi. Phone app etc. Amazon has it for $129 but I’ve seen it run as a special on morebeer.com for $99. I think you may have to enter the OG to start.
 
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Snuffy said:
Anybody ever used one of these?
https://plaato.io/
It’s an electronic airlock that figures SG using CO2 measurement. Wifi. Phone app etc. Amazon has it for $129 but I’ve seen it run as a special on morebeer.com for $99. I think you may have to enter the OG to start.
Click to expand...

Well... here's an fairly professional review that was not terribly favorable:
https://www.homebrewfinds.com/2019/...fi-fermentation-analyzer-for-homebrewing.html

I don't know that there is much positive commentary on it.
 
kh54s10 said:
I'll save the $130ish and just wait a little longer....
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Also a really good option. ;-) And less financially silly. There are several justifications I made to talk myself into a tilt, and I love it (and don't regret it), but it isn't needed by any means. And if I didn't have one... my measurements would be minimal, if at all.

Most of my beers seem to use the Safale 05.... which has been failproof for me thus far. I haven't had anything resembling a stalled fermentation with 1 packet per 5 gal batch (2 for 10), so I'd be content to just brew the beer per instructions, wait til the airlock stopped entirely, wait another week, dry hop for the prescribed time, and call it good. No real measurement necessary, and I probably wouldn't bother much, unless I had some kind of concern.
 
I record as many data points as I can think of (engineer). Pre-boil is the most interesting gravity reading for me, to check on mash efficiency.
 
Baglorious said:
Well... here's an fairly professional review that was not terribly favorable:
https://www.homebrewfinds.com/2019/...fi-fermentation-analyzer-for-homebrewing.html

I don't know that there is much positive commentary on it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that guy was not using it in a standard situation tho. Chillers, brewjackets, blow-off tubes, varying environment temps that created bubbler suck, low headspace that caused foam in the unit.

I’d like to see a review where they set it up on a 5 gal brew in a 7.5 gal bucket with no other gadgets and a stable room temp. And then a good comparison to manual hydrometer readings for alcohol measurement. It’s a toy to let you watch your fermenter bubble at work but that seems kind of cool.
 
I sometimes do a gravity reading before the boil if something has changed in my procedure. I always take a reading as I transfer to the fermenter as a rough check of efficiency. Never take a final reading. I let it ride for a couple of weeks at least then transfer, carb, and drink.
 
I have a Tilt. Now that I understand how it works, anything that disrupts the "tilt" of the device (caked on krausen, insufficient headspace, my SS FTSS temperature control lid coils, etc.) causes deviations in the readings. The temp is always right on and it is a good indicator of when fermentation is complete. I used to watch the airlock in the past, until the light went on in my head re the effect of off gassing of dissolved CO2 causing slow airlock bubbling even after fermentation is complete. This is where refractometer (with correction), hydrometer, or just familiarity with an an established process comes into play. Would I buy the Tilt again? Probably not.
 
I do take measurements - Now that I have a refractometer, since it only takes a couple drops, I'll measure the first and second runnings, as well as post boil and FG measurements.
The first few brews I did with the refractometer, I'd double check the FG with my hygrometer - I don't bother anymore with that since the numbers as plugged into Brewers Friend calculator were spot on (not counting once that was an ID-10-T error - once I cleared that up, it was the same.)
 
You can totally brew just fine without taking measurements. It's pretty commando style though because you don't know if you're drinking a 4% beer or an 8% beer.

I'm a science nerd, so I like taking measurements. However, I really don't care to take measurements pre and post mash though. I just let my brewhouse efficiency dictate any changes I need to do next time (grist bill + wort volume + OG reading). That's all I really care about.

I absolutely will take an OG reading, but this time with a refractometer. It takes a few seconds to do. I don't bother with my hydrometer tube anymore for this because they are A) fragile, B) takes longer to cool the liquid, and C) uses more wort, D) just as accurate as a hydrometer.

Bottling day is when I take my second reading (hydrometer). I've brewed more than 20 batches with 6-8 different yeasts using a wide range of mash temperatures and different adjuncts. I know what the typical/expected FG is for beer, and I can make a VERY safe assumption when it is done simply by how it looks in the carboy. Not only this, I allow minimum of 14-15 days in the fermenter to assure it's done. When using fruit and other adjuncts (enzymes, juice) I will wait 21 days.

Once you've got great working knowledge of how all this works, taking measurements during fermentation only increases the risk of infection and oxidization, so it is not worth doing.

Many will be surprised to learn that 90-100% of fermentation is over by the first 3-6 days after pitching. S-04 is stupid fast. I had S-04 drop a 1.104 beer (yes, you read that right) to 1.018 in 6 days. 10 days later it was still 1.018. So it was literally done in 6 days (if not less than that even).

I've bottled many beers only 10 days after pitching before. No problems. But now, I just use more patience to be on the safe side/less work and just institute the 14 minimum now.
 
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I always check my pre-boil gravity with a refractometer to see what my conversion efficiency was and if it matches my expected efficiency.
I don't often check post-boil because you should be able to calculate that based on the remaining volume of liquid.
I've started doing this more recently though.

I don't measure during or after fermentation. I rely on patience, waiting at least 2 weeks before doing anything (bottling, kegging, transferring for any reason) with it. Rare is a beer I make that would take longer, but I usually let a lager or bigger beer sit longer after bumping the temp a bit.

I had my first stalled fermentation since using my temp control setup recently with a saison I was making. I have no idea why it stalled, the temp was stable and only ramped after at least a week of strong fermentation.
This might cause me to start measuring for completeness, but I doubt it.
 
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Rarely do I check gravity. Only when trying a new recipe or tweaking an old one. Even then, only about half the time.
 
I check preboil gravity and OG. That's more of a check on my mash efficiency and because it's easy (especially since I use a refractometer).

I rarely check FG, unless I'm using a yeast or other process that I'm less familiar with. Part of this is that my fermenter (15.5 gal keg) makes it difficult to pull samples, so I wouldn't pull the sample until I'm kegging the beer anyway. Part of it is sheer laziness. And part of it is that I'm typically using US-05, multiple (3-4) packs per 10 gallon batch, and I just trust that it'll finish.

If I were brewing a saison with 3724, or some other beer with a yeast known to have stall issues, I'd be more careful.
 

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