What do you hate about hydrometers?

[masonsjax]

So I have the ability to reproduce the results from a batch if I want to? Throwing things together without measuring will make beer, sure, but good luck ever making that same batch of beer again if you love it without recording your numbers and process.....

Actually that was supposed to be a joke. I guess I forgot to wink.

Since you brought it up though, I do remake favorite recipes without measuring gravity. I all but stopped checking because my process was dialed in enough to hit the numbers every time. If my hydrometer was to break, I don't think I'd replace it. I certainly don't need one for repeatability. Of course there's nothing wrong with those that like to measure and record every detail. I can definitely see where that's part of the fun of this hobby.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Sean's site is down for me... I get a message from the hosting provider...

Any alternative links?

@pricelessbrewing, if it's an ongoing issue and not a temporary glitch, maybe you should contact him about hosting his calculator on your site along side your BIAB calculator. Seems like it's too valuable of a tool to lose.

That's a shame, I'll send him an email.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I hate that hygrometers are not called hydrometers. I just feel that the tool to measure humidity should have the prefix hydro. I don't even know what the hell a hygro is. However, if hygrometers were called hydrometers what would we call hydrometers? I think something like glass floatey alcohol measurey thing would be good.

 

[A2HB]

Ethometers?

 

[carloslavin]

Vote for sugarometer

 

[beernutz]

Which one of these do you use? The SG seems too large a range to be useful. Are you using brix and calling it plato? I guess the 0-30 brix hydro would cover most any beer and the 0-15 might be treated as a "precision hydrometer"

I couldn't find a link to the one I bought so long ago so I just grabbed that one for purposes of illustration. Coopers apparently makes a plastic one specifically for beer which is included in some of their kits but a quick google search doesn't reveal a US-based seller for just the hydrometer. Here's a picture of the coopers:

Mine is an old Walker Desmond wine hydrometer:

 

[NoIguanaForZ]

However, if hygrometers were called hydrometers what would we call hydrometers?

Densitometers.

 

[Pkrd]

Densitometers.

But what would you call a densitometer?

 

[GuldTuborg]

But what would you call a densitometer?

Translusitometer?

 

[masonsjax]

The flux capacitor. It's what makes time travel possible.

 

[Kiknjville]

I hate when foam forms around the hydrometer and I can't get a reading for an hour or two. I also hate that I now have to put on reading glasses so I can see it (but that's not the hydrometers fault.)

 

[TX_Brewing]

I hate that everyone else has broken a bunch of them and I've been using the same one that my dad started out with 15 years ago.

Gotcha beat I still use the one I bought new in 1996.

But yeah seems like everybody breaks theirs at some point, I will probably shed a tear when I do.

 

[phug]

I don't think I'll ever break the first one I used. Mostly because I gave it back to my FIL as soon as I bought my own, so I wouldn't end up breaking his. He doesn't brew any more, but still.

Now I have two since the second one was a freebie. I hate that they both consistently read the same thing but that I know it to be wrong from a calibration test.

I hate that I had a dream that I had broken them both in quick succession. That was upsetting.

 

[LandoLincoln]

I hate when foam forms around the hydrometer and I can't get a reading for an hour or two. I also hate that I now have to put on reading glasses so I can see it (but that's not the hydrometers fault.)

Overfill the hydrometer tube until beer starts to spill out of the top. Then blow the foam away. Done.