Hydrometer and few other questions

[6470zzy]

http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/h ... er_use.htm

Check out the link for steps on the use of a hydrometer....as for the vanilla I would back off of that one, way too easy to end up ruining your beer with too much extract. If you want to experiment try doing a 1 gallon batch and see if you like the taste rather than ruining 40 pints or so.

Cheers

[jubby]

Hydrometer instructions here: http://www.stevenson-reeves.co.uk/howto.htm Not sure about the vanilla though. Never tried it.

Edit. messages crossed in the ether

[Garth]

To work out how much vanilla flavouring you need to add, simply draw off a pint and add the vanilla essence drop by drop, stirring each time then tasting it, when you are happy with the taste, simply scale it up for the amount of beer left in the barrel.

For example, if you find that 5 drops of essence in the single pint does the trick for you, for a 40 (or 39) pinter, you'll need nearly 200 drops of vanilla in the bulk.

Make sure that you remember how many drops you add to the pint (and the barrel later)

It's your beer, make it to how you like it. You may find that you don't like it at all in beer, then no worries you've only wasted a pint, better than adding it to all your beer then finding out.

Vanilla goes quite well in a stout, I have done that myself and it was pretty good, don't over do it though

[Ditch]

Garth's bang on the money about trying tiny amounts in a pint. I once ~ 'Live', on this forum ~ questioned the wisdom of putting Black Strap Molasses in stout. I was advised the same way and tried it.

It was Vile!

And, to think; If I'd just blithely took a shot at it and dumped a quarter jar of the stuff into my FV .....

Utmost caution, with microscopic amounts, in One pint