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sbv32
10-17-2007, 10:50 PM
do you think it would be possible to use a marine hydrometer for beer? Click here (http://cgi.ebay.com/MARINELAND-INSTANT-OCEAN-HYDROMETER-NEW_W0QQitemZ130163903282QQihZ003QQcategoryZ3212QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) to check it out.
iamnick
10-17-2007, 11:01 PM
Why use an aquarium one when you can buy a triple scale hydrometer for ~7 dollars?
sbv32
10-17-2007, 11:09 PM
I honestly can't answer that question. The one that I got with my starter kit sucks. I can't read it worth a s#$t. Anyone have any suggestions on a great hydro?
iamnick
10-17-2007, 11:10 PM
Originally posted by sbv32
I honestly can't answer that question. The one that I got with my starter kit sucks. I can't read it worth a s#$t. Anyone have any suggestions on a great hydro?

Mine is from Austin Homebrew....it was 6.99 and I bought some other stuff to make use of their flat rate shipping. It works well enough for me, and the price is right. hth.
sbv32
10-17-2007, 11:13 PM
cool, ill check it out. Anyone else have any hydros that they LOVE
rhino777
10-18-2007, 12:48 AM
Not sure if it's part of the problem but the test vial that I got with my kit just didn't really work very well with the hydrometer. Now reading it is almost effortless since I dropped $10 for a wine thief.
HogieWan
10-18-2007, 10:11 AM
Originally posted by sbv32
I honestly can't answer that question. The one that I got with my starter kit sucks. I can't read it worth a s#$t. Anyone have any suggestions on a great hydro?

as rhino suggested, you may just need a wider vial for holding the liquid and hydrometer. If there's not enough room between the hydro and the container walls, the reading will be off.
BrewDog
10-18-2007, 11:50 AM
Once you break enough hydrometers, a refractometer starts looking better and better (though pricey in comparison ~$50). They never roll off the table. For an AG brewer, it is AWESOME and highly recommended.
HogieWan
10-18-2007, 12:16 PM
yep - I love my refractometer. If you check eBay, you can usually get a good deal. Mine was <$40 after shipping.
sbv32
10-18-2007, 10:06 PM
so i will get a refractormeter and a wine thief.

Thanks yall
BrewDog
10-18-2007, 11:09 PM
You won't really need a wine thief once you get a refractometer.
A refractometer only needs a few drops of beer/wort. Instead of a thief, you can always dip some sanitized tubing in then put your thumb over the other end. Pull it out, and the liquid is kept in the tubing by the air pressure. Just like you did with the milk or soda in your straw when you were a kid.

You WILL need to use some software with the refractometer though when you are measuring FG. Promash does the right calculations, as does most other brewing software. You can't just measure finished gravity straight, because the alcohol interferes with the readings. the nice thing is that as long as you know the OG, then the FG is easily calculated from the refractometer reading.

HTH-
MrNate
10-19-2007, 01:24 PM
Originally posted by BrewDog
You won't really need a wine thief once you get a refractometer.
A refractometer only needs a few drops of beer/wort. Instead of a thief, you can always dip some sanitized tubing in then put your thumb over the other end. Pull it out, and the liquid is kept in the tubing by the air pressure. Just like you did with the milk or soda in your straw when you were a kid.


Ah, not drinking the sample. Yet another reason why I will probably never by a refractometer.
barleyburps
10-21-2007, 10:04 AM
I bought a refractometer a couple years back, started taking readings from batch to batch so as to develope a correction factor for it, then pretty much just forgot it. . . .been using a hydrometer too long . . . .
BrewDog
10-21-2007, 11:47 AM
Originally posted by MrNate
Ah, not drinking the sample. Yet another reason why I will probably never by a refractometer.

Taking samples repeatedly to figure out when the beer is done eats up a lot of beer. That's exactly why I bought the refractometer. I can still thief out an oz or so if I feel like having a taste, without taking a full half-pint or so to do the measurement.
zoom6zoom
10-21-2007, 04:32 PM
If you don't have Promash or the like, I found and posted an online calculator earlier:

http://www.realbeer.com/discussions/showthread.php?s=&threadid=16327
HogieWan
10-22-2007, 11:30 AM
Originally posted by BrewDog
Taking samples repeatedly to figure out when the beer is done eats up a lot of beer. That's exactly why I bought the refractometer. I can still thief out an oz or so if I feel like having a taste, without taking a full half-pint or so to do the measurement.

My conical's racking port gets a lot of use this way. I usually take a sample in a shot glass and get 1 - 1.5 oz. This is plenty to get a reading and get a smell and taste test. I feel I can do this more often than I used to do with the hydrometer without "wasting" the beer or introducing spoilage vectors