How do you all take samples for gravity? I use a glass carboy and I typically siphon a bit out into a test tube, but its a bit of a pain with having to keep some star san handy to do this and cleaning my auto siphon stuff every time. Just wondering if any of you guys have some brilliant ideas of how to get a gravity reading easier.
I was thinking like a long turkey baster may work… little quicker and easier possibly… and also maybe trying to drill out a spigot hole in the glass carboy for easier bottling/ transferring/ gravity readings.
Wine thief. Three piece plastic type. I keep a bucket of RO based star san on hand at all times. Turkey baster works fine as well, just not very long and requires more pulls.
DO NOT drill into the carboy. You will compromise its integrity and it will break on you. Even if you drill the hole successfully, someday it will shatter.
I don’t worry about it. Let the system ride to expected attenuation…be the beer, feel the beer…become a jedi master, if you will…then rack, and take FG. Multiple pulls with a thief waste the precious…future mature carbonated malt beverage IMO.
If you are really concerned about consistent FG over 3 days or stuck fermentation I would suggest getting a refractometer. It takes way less sample amount to get a reading and should give you that constant number you seek. Just adjust the Brix number to account for the alcohol. Google it. Drink a beer.
Keep it simple…a good thing to remember…It is homebrew after all, and should still taste better then ABInbev.
A wine thief is your best bet. Don’t drill a glass carboy…
I have a thief. It’s sort of a PITA. The turkey baster is much easier to sanitize and use, in my experience.
Yes, it’s smaller and pulls less beer with each sample, but that has many benefits. It much easier to use the baster if the fermenter is elevated as the thief is long enough to hit the ceiling or suspended piping (the ceilings in my basement are not 10 ft ceilings).
+1 to a wine thief. I usually don’t pull too many hydrometer samples. I typically just wait until I get ready to package to take a reading and adjust the recipe the next time I brew it if I don’t achieve a “close-to” final gravity reading.
yea usually I only pull two samples three days apart at the very end to ensure its done. a Turkey baster would probably work too from what everyone is saying, so long as I can find a long enough one.
Still debating on wether to get a refractometer or not but TBH with them not being accurate with FG it doesn’t seem like its worth the trouble.
Thanks all!