hydrometer

[youngbrewer]

Hello all

as i am new to all this is it better to leave the hydrometer in the brew or take it out?


so when i make a brew just sterilize the hydrometer and drop it in and leave it??

if so then when i need to take a reading what do i need to do ???

Cheers for any help

[adm]

You are better off getting a sample or trial jar. It's just a tall thin vial that takes 100ml or so. Then you can just run off a small amount of beer from the FV into that (as long as you have a tap on the FV!) and put the hydrometer in the sample jar to take a reading. That way you don't have to open up the FV to take a reading.

You also get a tasty and nutritious sample that needs disposed of!

[youngbrewer]

You are better off getting a sample or trial jar. It's just a tall thin vial that takes 100ml or so. Then you can just run off a small amount of beer from the FV into that (as long as you have a tap on the FV!) and put the hydrometer in the sample jar to take a reading. That way you don't have to open up the FV to take a reading.

You also get a tasty and nutritious sample that needs disposed of!

Thanks for the answer but i aint for a tap in the FV that is my next purchase

[Parva]

In that case sanitize the hydrometer, drop it in and leave it there. Give it a quick spin to check the gravity.

[Jaoqua]

By all means try that, but I'd be worried about the hydrometer getting covered in the yeast head and so being both hard to read and slightly inaccurate.

I have used a turkey baster to take samples from a tapless FV for sg readings. If you're careful it's fine. Also I just boiled the baster first, rather than doing the whole sanitization rigmarole. It was fine. No infection.

[stevezx7r]

Yet another reason to get a tap on the fv