Stupid question...about easy to use equipment

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duridsr4fite

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what do i need to put a sample in to use a hydrometer? Do i need to have enough liquid to cover the whole thing?Mine came in a plastic tube. Will this work as a sample container?


<----lame, possibly need more coffee
 
Some people use the plastic tube it comes in, but many people prefer to buy a seperate test vessel. It's basically just a large tube with a flat base.

I use my wine thief, but that's probably not the best thing to do.
 
It doesn't have to be filled all the way, just enough for the hydrometer to float in it. Try it out with some water to get a feel for how much fluid you need.
 
the trouble that I've noticed with narrow tubes and wine thief is that the hydro sometimes clings to the side of the tube. I use to use the tube it came in but now use the thief, may someday get a larger diameter measuring tube (read more to drink).

Make sure you twirl the hydro and shake the bubbles off of it.. you may also benefit by letting it sit for a while as the carb leaves the sample.
 
The hydrometer needs to float in the liquid, then the reading is taken at the bottom of the meniscus where the fluid contacts the scale. Check out the following site:

Using a Hydrometer

Tom
 
I use both methods, the plastic hydrometer tube or just dropping the (sanitized) hydrometer right into the fermenter depending on which fermenter bucket I'm using. One of my fermenter lids has a hole in the lid big enough to pull out the airlock stopper and look inside. I use a sanitized turkey baster to extract some of the brew and put that into my hydrometer tube to take a reading. If I'm using my other bucket, the hole in the lid is too small to extract any brew out of it so I just take the whole lid off and drop the hydrometer directly in. Sometimes that's it's tough to take a reading that way if there's still a good krausen layer on top, but if there is then fermentation probably isn't finished anyway.
 
I have one of those plastic test jars, but I use the tube the hydrometer came in. I can adjust the temperature of my sample quickly by dunking it in a glass of hot or cold water. Can't do that with the test jar because it's too big. I also have half as much waste with the hydrometer tube.
 
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