I didn't take a gravity reading before my cider started to ferment. The recipe I followed said it would yield a ~9% cider, however I only put in about 85% of the sugar it specified. Is there any way to get an accurate ABV reading after it's completed its fermentation?
fermenting a bochet, I dropped a bluetooth hydrometer in the must and started with a gravity reading of 1.128. Pitched lalvin EC-1118, and over a day the gravity has gone up to 1.144. I've heard that if your yeast is active enough, it can physically push your hydrometer up, and throw your reading off. However, would that not mean that I should have some visible airlock activity? I'm also quite sure my airlock is working properly - the fermenter is …
So I want to exceed the scale of my saccharometer scale, which goes up to 25 °P (1.106 SG). Now, I am a programmer and exceeding is my thing. So: As far as I understand, gravity is linear in nature. Can I just take a sample of volume V, dilute to 2*V with drinking water, put my saccharometer in, read a gravity G and my correct gravity reading will be G/2 (of course other factors should be possible, but 2 …
I'm new to brewing beer and want to keep a close eye on SG, but I'm mindful of the potential cost when taking several hydrometer readings. Assuming all my equipment is sterilised, is it OK to return the sample back to the fermenter, or should I err on the side of caution and discard it each time? For sake of completeness: my sterilisation process consists of soaking the cleaned equipment (hydrometer, wine thief, sample tube, etc) in warm water with …
I have a refractometer for measuring my OG and FG for my home brews. Eventually, I found out about wort correction. Are cider and wort too different to use the same correction tool?
I recently purchase a digital refractometer and use an online calculator to convert the ºBrix value to SG. My question is, at what temperature is the resultant SG calibrated?
I have returned to home brewing after a long leave of absence and would be very grateful for some advice just to make sure my wort is still going in the right direction as I am getting a bit concerned. I replaced the time expired yeast packets with new ones and have made two kits, a Brewmaker Strong Export Bitter and a John Thompsons Strong XXX Bitter. Everything was properly sterilised. It's now day 6 and the wort of the …
I started home brewing about 2 years ago with extract kits and now getting a little more involve with acquiring additional tools of the trade. I know how important checking the gravity is, but I have a some what silly question regarding refractometers. I am also a saltwater aquarium hobbyist so I use a refactometer to check the salinity in the water, which is testing the gravity. The question, is the refractometer used in home brewing the same as one …
I bought a hydrometer to level up a bit my game, It works great for Initial Gravity measures, it has a range from 0.997 to 1.100. My problem comes when it finishes the fermentation, I get a very VERY dry mead which the hydrometer ranges doesn't work, it gets almost completely submerged, I think my FG is around 0.990. My question is, how can I measure it without diluting the mead. I can add honey as I usually aim to …
I was just curious because I took what was supposed to be my OG two days after because my hydrometer came late. The reading seemed very low, 1.030, and I was hoping I lost at least .010 from the first two days of fermenting. I used Safale US-05 yeast, pitched at around 90 degrees and let it ferment at 68-72 degrees. Desired OG was 1.052. Since I'm using a bucket I'm not able to see any foam, but activity in …
I have a 23 litre brew (about 5/6 gallons). The fermentation bucket has a tap at the bottom for bottling. The bucket is covered with a lid, and has an airlock. What's the best way to get some beer out to calculate its gravity? The options I can think of: Open the lid, and dunk in a cup Move the bucket to a table to be able to use the tap (but it's really heavy!)
So I've just completed my fifth BIAB brew, and this time I decided to try and calculate the mash efficiency of my setup since I'm fairly sure it's not as high as it should be. I also think at the moment its the most useful efficiency measure, but I'm not sure! I tested the wort after the mash and after putting it into the fermenter to get gravity readings. The readings were 1.020 after the mash (67C), and 1.030 into …
I brewed a batch of beer about 3 weeks ago, and I was told to test the gravity prior to bottling to make sure it is ready. My question is, will I do any harm by opening the fermentation bucket in order to collect a sample to test with. I do understand the principals around proper sanitisation. I'm more concerned with introducing oxygen into the fermentation bucket if its not ready yet and I have to wait some more. Is …
I have brewed the same recipe 4 times. All 4 brews had 1.028-1.030 pre-boil gravity but today when I finished my mash I had 1.025. Any reasons that happen? And what impact will it have on my beer?
Is there any reason why you can't use the same sample for all your gravity readings rather than taking a fresh sample each time? The idea being to take an initial reading and then keep this sample separate from the main brew and use this sample purely for gravity checks.
For the beer that I brewed this past weekend, I finally remembered to take an Original Gravity reading. Unlike my previous last three attempts, I actually had a little more than my target 1 gallon, so I poured a little into the hydrometer. However, the wort was somewhat sediment & trub heavy at that point. Not to the point that the hydrometer was bottomed out, though. But a small layer settled down, and there was some floating stuff. Would this …
Can you think of any scenario (apart from errors of the measurement tools) where gravity actually goes down during boil. Normally, due to the loss of water, gravity should always go up. During our last brew session, we measured lower post-boil gravity (1.058) than pre-boil (1.068) and we're quite puzzled. How we took the samples: Pre-boil: pipette from top of stirred boiling pot. Post-boil: pipette from first drawings after whirlpool. Any ideas?
took a gravity reading today at the end of the transfer from the kettle and there was quite a bit of trub in the cylinder, like the whole flip'n tube. so would the trub hold the hydrometer up and give a false reading?
I have a cider that i have been fermenting for almost two weeks. I took a reading about four days ago and it was 1.005, we decided it was about time to bottle. Then last night when we got around to bottling i took another reading and it was 1.018! This is before i added the priming sugar. I cant figure out what would have made the gravity go back up after getting down to 1.005?