Hydrometer Usage, Sanitation & Storage

[michael_aussie]

I have gleaned from reading here that there are many different habits.



I started brewing last year in a frenzy, taking readings every couple of days.

However, there were a few things I was concerned about:

1. I was putting the hydrometer directly into my drum, so I had contamination concerns.

2. It was hard to read the scale of the hydrometer in the drum in the brewing fridge in the light of my shed.

3. I was storing the hydrometer in its original container, without washing it or sanitising it again.



After speaking to a few friends who never took SG readings, I also stopped.



I would like to do the "right" thing but need some tips.

I have heard that some brewers leave their hydrometer in the brewing drum during the entire process, eliminating sanitation, cleaning and storage issues.

I also take it that most "serious" brewers remove a same of beer from their drum to take a SG reading. This obviously makes sanitising the hydrometer less crucial, but it means that whatever you use to take the same has to be clean.



So who does what? What is your hydrometer "process", especially in respect to sanitisation?

 

[boobiedazzler]

Pour off from the drum into a tube
Take reading from tube
Throw beer/wort out, or drink it
Spray some sanitister into the closed tap when finished

Really, you only need to do this once before you pitch, then a second time at around 10 days, then a third time the day after that to ensure the FG is stable.

You shouldnt be opening your fermenter throughout the cycle, because youre only asking for contaminant trouble (germs in your mouth, your breath etc)

 

[manticle]

Just to stop it getting festy, I rinse my tube and hydrometer then spray with starsan after each use. I store it in a different tube.

Always take a sample - placed the hydrometer directly in when I first started but soon worked out there was a better way. My first hydrometer was a handmedown brigalow that came in a box (no tube). This is how they are still sold.

 

[DangerousDave]

stupid noob question time (dont pretend you dont love it Manticle)

ive always been worried about taking samples because to take the sample from the tap surely this is drawing in air from the top which would either pull the contaminated water from the airlock or if i take the airlock out drawing oxygen through the hole and possibly bringing in nasties at the crucial stage when more protective co2 is not being created by the fermentation process?

cheers

 

[manticle]

The amount of air being drawn at the top is negligible. Either fill the airlock with no rinse sanitiser in the right proportion, try wrapping glad wrap and a rubber band around you airlock and leaving it empty or dispense with the lid and wrap the whole opening in glad wrap with the o-ring as a large rubber band to seal. It's an unnecessary bit of kit anyway.

After drawing the sample, spray the tap with some no rinse sanitiser.

 

[stew.w]

ive got a question, dont know if its been answered yet or not but i couldnt find it.
if you take a sample from the tap and there is a reasonable amount of yeast in the sample,does this affect the gravity reading?
heavier, lighter or not at all?

cheers,

Stewart

 

[MeLoveBeer]

I always crack the lid (just enough so the pressure is relieved in the airlock), then take a sample in a measuring vial (just one of the cheap ones from G&G).

The Hydrometer never comes in contact with beer in the Fermenter, so the cleanliness of the Hydrometer is not important (I just usually rinse both the hydrometer and measuring jar with hot water after measuring)

 

[DangerousDave]

cheers ill give taking readings a go

i tried the glad wrap lid thing once but as i havnt built a fermenting cupboard yet my dog decided to put his face through the plastic wrap and resulted in my one and only infection to date

i was stoked <_<

 

[kbe]

ive got a question, dont know if its been answered yet or not but i couldnt find it.
if you take a sample from the tap and there is a reasonable amount of yeast in the sample,does this affect the gravity reading?
heavier, lighter or not at all?

cheers,

Stewart

I did read in a thread here somewhere that some people will discard the first sample because it will read high. I never really worry as the first sample is usually days prior to the last one.

The one problem that I always have - taking a sample prior to pitching the yeast. Now, I just normally leave it brew for 14 days for an ale (in a controlled temp) and not worry that much about ABV%. I suppose the downside of this is that it takes longer before bottling and then drinking.... but I am going to get around this, I have bought another fridge that will hold two fermenters.

 

[Lodan]

ive got a question, dont know if its been answered yet or not but i couldnt find it.
if you take a sample from the tap and there is a reasonable amount of yeast in the sample,does this affect the gravity reading?
heavier, lighter or not at all?

cheers,

Stewart

That can increase your reading as there is more suspension in the solution. You can drain a little bit of beer first to remove any sediment clouded beer first and then drain more for the hydrometer sample

 

[manticle]

Samples are usually discarded because of unmixed malt in the sample being unrepresentative of the overall wort. Not sure yeast has any bearing on it - presumably a beer that's been racked, fined and cold conditioned should have a lower gravity than one that hasn't if yeast affected density. Pretty sure that's not the case.

Happy to be wrong.

 

[stew.w]

yeah thats what im getting at, once it has dropped out, then you take a sample and its always pretty cloudy and got a fair few big bits of yeast floating around.

 

[gap]

The hydrometer is measuring the sugar in the solution not anything else.
Unless there is so much solid matter it is stopping the hydrometer from floating properly
it should not affect the measurement.

 

[Lodan]

oops my mistake, Gap and Manticle have it right (not that they need me to tell them )