Odd Hydrometer Readings

[Zardez]

Hey everyone.
Just started my first brew 8 days ago and was after some advice.

Just using the coopers kit with the premix can, everything seemed to be going well, smells like beer looks like beer, tastes like (albeit a little flat) beer.
I took a hydrometer reading on day 1 and got 1.035
day 6 i got 1.016
day 7 i got 1.023
day 8 i got 1.020

so what have I screwed up? it was my understanding the reading should only go down not back up again?
I've triple checked the Hydrometer isn't stuck to the sides of the tube and left it for a minute for the head to settle.

Also with those calculations that puts my beer at a whopping 1.9% very low, should I be expecting the reading to drop significantly more?
even down to 1.016 it's only 2.4%
I was hoping for around 4%-5% mark (regular beer)

advice is appreciated

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Check your readings from the top and bottom of your ferm. You may get a suprise

 

[Silver]

What is the deal with that. It happened to me once before and again today. I had taken some refractometer and hydro readings and got 1049, then from the cube and into FV I get 1043. I've never stirred FV contents prior to pitching yeast but will consider it next time.

 

[fletcher]

two things i've had that have affected my hydrometer readings like you've experienced; temperature and yeast sediment.

make sure your reading is at as close to 20C as possible (or you can use a tool like in brewmate which adjusts your readings for a higher or lower temp) and make sure you don't use the first runnings from your tap when taking your sample into your hydrometer, as there is often a clump of yeast that plops out. i usually pour a tiny bit into a glass/cup and then take my sample for the reading.

 

[Zardez]

thanks for the replies guys, I'll check again tonight and get back to you

 

[mosto]

As fletch said, tip out the first few mls you draw off as there's often a bit off crap in there that can affect the reading. The standard ingredients with the Coopers DIY kit, from memory, are a tin of Coopers lager and 1kg Brew Enhancer #1 (which is, I think, 600g dextrose, 400g maltodextrin). This will should give you an original gravity of 1038, so your OG is not far off (note, not mixing the ingredients thoroughly enough can give a false OG reading as well, but 1035 would suggest you've mixed pretty well). This is only going to give you a mid strength beer, around 3.8%.

For your next few brews, have a play with ianh's spreadsheet here. It helped me heaps when I was brewing with kits.

 

[GalBrew]

Out of interest, what does your hydro read in distilled water? I recently bought a new one after dropping old faithful on the floor and it is 4 gravity points out (reads 1.004 in water).

 

[waz_j]

If you're using the plastic Coopers hydrometer then it will need to be calibrated. I didn't realise for a long time that the red plastic tip is designed to be cut off to calibrate. Use distilled water at 20C and if the hydrometer reads high, start trimming off small pieces off the plastic tip until it reads 1.000

As already mentioned, variations in readings are usually due to temperature differences or hops/yeast in the sample. I try to draw a half cup and let it settle and then decant into the tube to take a hydrometer reading.

 

[Zardez]

thanks heaps for all of the really helpful responses guys, I tipped a little out and got a ready of 1.015 so we are back on track, should be ready for bottling very soon!

 

[Zardez]

Have just taken another reading and its down to 1.012 so it must be getting close to bottle time.

i put the hydrometer in water (only tap couldn't get distilled) and it was bang on 1.000 so looks like the hydrometer is at least pretty close.

thanks for all the help guys