Wanna hear a funny story?

[claphamsa]

so on Sunday I was making my RIS (the brew day was a pretty epic disaster, imagine 4 oz of leaf hops breaking out of your hop bag, and you get the beginning of it.) I pull out my refractometer, and take a reading... 1.081, hmm, thats kinda low (as bad as the brew went, not unsurprising). Im new with the refractometer, so I decide to take a reading with the hydrometer, so i go gt my hydro, take a chilled sample... 1.091. WEIRD! but i trust the hydrometer more... right? I m rinsing it with the hose.... once its rinsed i hold it up to the light to make sure there is no more hops or wort on it....(full of water) 1.010......my hydrometer, told me tap water was 1.010..... me and this hydro have had a good 2 years together, but its time to break out the backup!

any ideas why it would be wrong now?

 

[mkling]

It's a weighted piece of glass with some paper inside. My guess is the paper moved a little.

 

[Ryan_PA]

Your eyes might be broken.

Sometimes the hydrometers need calibration, as does most equipment. There is a slight chance your water is not 100% 1.000, but realistically, your hydro is 0.010 off...

It could also be that you were using the hydro outside

 

[claphamsa]

Your eyes might be broken.

Sometimes the hydrometers need calibration, as does most equipment. There is a slight chance your water is not 100% 1.000, but realistically, your hydro is 0.010 off...

It could also be that you were using the hydro outside

waters always been 1.000 before, and i checked it inside

 

[mkling]

The SG of water hasn't changed so it's something about your hydrometer. The things that could make it appear to float higher than it used to are:

1) It now weights less (seems unlikely),

2) More air is now inside it than there used to be (seems unlikely), or

3) The little bit of paper that has the scale on it has moved & slide up the tube a bit.

There may be other options that I can't think of, but the only likely one is that the paper slipped up the tube a bit.

 

[mkling]

Oops, one more -- you could have entered a lower gravity part of earth, so the hydrometer isn't being pulled down into the liquid as much.

 

[middleofnowhere]

I didn't laugh once during that story. Not funny at all.

 

[claphamsa]

I didn't laugh once during that story. Not funny at all.

1234566778

 

[CrookedChris]

Mine can be calibrated w/ a little screw. Go get some distilled water and recalibrate.

 

[claphamsa]

Mine can be calibrated w/ a little screw. Go get some distilled water and recalibrate.

u can calibrate a refractometer... not a hydrometer!

 

[conpewter]

that'd have to be a lot colder than room temp to get a .010 correction. Hmm crack in the hydrometer and a bit of water got in?

 

[claphamsa]

eh, maybe? i didnt really look, as said RIS was on the celing

 

[Skins_Brew]

how did the hop bag break? Did the bag slip out of the worm clamp? That has happened to me before.

 

[mkling]

that'd have to be a lot colder than room temp to get a .010 correction. Hmm crack in the hydrometer and a bit of water got in?

A crack would make it measure -.010 (it would sink further into the water). His situation is that the hydrometer is floating too high in the water (+.010 measure).

 

[mitch171]

You have invented beer with anti gravity properties!!?!?!?!?! Drink to lose weight!

 

[Shooter]

I didn't laugh once during that story. Not funny at all.

It's funny, but not ha, ha, funny.

 

[claphamsa]

how did the hop bag break? Did the bag slip out of the worm clamp? That has happened to me before.

welllllllll.... during boil over (5 G 14 G pot) the hot wort hit the pvc (I made one like yours) and melted it! it then sank in, and the clamp poped! insta nugget EVERYWHERE!

 

[david_42]

The paper scale in most hydrometers is just a friction fit (as if glass is a high friction material), they move around.