Jim's Beer Kit

WalesAles wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 09, 2018 9:07 pm

Kev888 wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 09, 2018 11:38 am

However, by filling the trial jar to the top, or overflowing, it means you don't need to look through the jar at all.

Then you blow off any excess bubbles, take your reading and drink the trial jar!
And then say BLM!

WA

I always drink the trial jar for quality control purposes.

They're all a bit small unfortunately. But it doesn't help that many homebrew ones also cram a huge and unnecessary (often combined beer & wine) range of gravities into one short hydrometer. I have a <1.000 - 1.060 one from the malt miller , the increments are easier to distinguish (a tall trial ja...

My laser vision deserted me a few years ago and, even with my reading glasses on, my hydrometer is not easy to read. I'm sure I'm only slightly above the average demographic on here, so can anyone recommend a hydrometer which is a bit easier to read.

Thanks, Kev. I've used it before and never had it reach FG so quickly. I always leave it on the yeast for two weeks anyhow. I took another reading today and it hasn't moved. On a related topic, In March, I did a small beer using the 'spent' grains from an ESB brew (using WY1968). I only took 5 litre...

Thanks, both.

I have just brewed a session IPA, OG 1042 using US-05. Within four days the krausen has started to dissipate and it looks as if it is finished fermenting. I took a hydrometer reading which is 1.010. Beersmith suggested it should reach a FG of 1.009, so it could just be finished but it seems a trifle...

I've done a few calculations; if the only potential source of loss was to 100g of hops then I agree with the above, the numbers aren't what I'd expect. The sugars don't evaporate, they just get more concentrated or diluted, so unless there was some loss of them other than to the hops, IMO there can...

chefgage wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:55 pm

Paddington wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 02, 2018 3:41 pm

I retook the pre boil reading several times. I've just gone to the fermenter and retaken that one, plus I've tested the hydrometer with clean water.

I take it you have compensated for temperature?

Sorry, missed this, yes I did.

Yes, I’m clutching at straws. It just makes no sense.

I can see how I’d lose some to hops, but that shouldn’t be more than 600mls (6mls per gm apparently) and if it was excessive evaporation then obviously the SG would be ok once I diluted it so, in the absence of any other explanation, I can only think my hydrometer is faulty.

I retook the pre boil reading several times. I've just gone to the fermenter and retaken that one, plus I've tested the hydrometer with clean water.

I drained the brew from the boiler into the fermenter through a sieve (it's such a small brew). When I realised it was short, I poured two litres of sanitary water through the hops in the sieve, obviously hoping to flush out any remaining wort (plus a bit of hop flavour!).

I have done maybe 25 AG brews, so I wouldn't class myself as an old timer but I'm also not a complete novice and I'm confident of all of the measurements I've taken but this makes no sense to me. I've just done a 10l mini brew of a heavily hopped US IPA. I was aiming for an OG of about 1.048. I batc...

If you don't dry hop heavily usually, it can drop the pH a few points so might feel more acidic. Always hard to say without brewing water modification, but if it's manky it'll probably come through in a few weeks. Well, Rob, I’ve been drinking these pretty quickly expecting the infection to get wor...

Rob, manky... is that a Midlands term? I’m from your neck of the woods originally and still have family over your way. Didn’t you do a Keystone Brew a few years ago? Hahah, must be, like Gambole! That's the other Weatheroak... we're Weatheroak Hill. They moved out and this started up in the same bu...