Erlenmeyer flask for gravity readings

[jollster101]

Hi all

I have seen some info elsewhere about taking the gravity readings with your hydrometer during fermentation. A few people said that they do away with the long, tall, thin vessels so as to avoid having to constantly sterilise and draw off wort when taking gravity readings.

Instead they tend to use something that has a wide base that they put wort into at the time they transfer to the FV and then use that throughout. (They cover it in the same they would the main FV and then leave it alongside its big brother effectively becoming a mini FV).

My question is what sort of vessel would be best for this, would an Erlenmeyer flask work?

What do some of you guys use (assuming yo follow this method of course)?

Cheers

 

[DJ_L3ThAL]

Sorry but having a small erlenmeyer fermenting next to your main FV instead of taking a gravity reading does not seem like a simplification of the gravity reading taking process, or am I missing something?

 

[Blitzer]

Never heard of this before, I can't see how this would actually work.
Your Erlenmeyer would be fermenting at a completely different rate than your fermenter based upon amount of yeast pitched etc..
I would suggest sticking with drawing wort off at intervals through your ferment cycle, otherwise it will lead it to inaccurate readings.

Also I can't see a need to sterilize your hydrometer tube, you are not putting that sample back in your fermenter. You take a sample & dump (or drink) otherwise you are risking an infection.

 

[sp0rk]

Never heard of this before, I can't see how this would actually work.
Your Erlenmeyer would be fermenting at a completely different rate than your fermenter based upon amount of yeast pitched etc..

Also I can't see a need to sterilize your hydrometer tube, you are not putting that sample back in your fermenter. You take a sample & dump (or drink) otherwise you are risking an infection.

^^ Exactly this
Take your hydro sample in the thin tube, drink a little to see how flavours are progressing and then turf the rest in the sink
Simple

 

[NewtownClown]

It is a good way to determine what the final gravity will be but not a good way to determine what the current gravity is.
It is called a forced fermentation, I have done it and another brewer on here does it with every brew.
Basically a a sample, I use a 750ml PET bottle, is drawn off, capped with a bung and airlock or, in my case, glad wrap, and fermented at a higher temperature and roused regularly. The bottle will ferment out a lot quicker, therefore indicating the attenuation of the yeast in that particular wort.

I especially do it when using a yeast I haven't used before or yeast that have already gone through a number of generations

More info here

 

[Weizguy]

You would only need to sanitise the hydo tube if you dip it directly in the fermentor to take your sample.

Assuming you have a tap on the FV, you can draw off at the tap and then spray Starsan or your fave sanitiser in there to cleanse it again.

If you want to avoid a larger sample size, you can draw off a ml or two and use a refractometer to monitor the gravity, as you long as you took an O.G. measurement and you have the correction table or Beersmith etc to adjust for the alcohol in the beer.

Beersmith allows you to input the o.g. and the current refractometer reading for a fermenting wort - provides the actual corrected s.g.and the alc %.

Hope that was helpful.

 

[jollster101]

Thanks all. I was going by what I read elsewhere about this method but it looks like it isn't the ideal approach to take.

I am happy to discount the idea as it certainly seems that more people don't advocate doing it than do.

Cheers

 

[Pogierob]

You won't get accurate readings from a refractometer once fermentation starts, the alcohol fudges the readings

 

[JDW81]

You won't get accurate readings from a refractometer once fermentation starts, the alcohol fudges the readings

You won't get accurate readings if you take it as a true reading, but there are converters available which will account for the alcohol content and give you an accurate reading.

JD