Hydrometer off????

[barley ben]

i'm just wondering if it is possible for your hydrometer to get really off and if so, how long do they last. i just made a 5 gallon batch of imperial stout. 9.3 lbs of extract and 4.5 lbs of grains(quite a large brew). every thing went great till i checked the o.g. 1.030???? confused and not the happiest man in the world i continued. next day i need a blow off on my 6.5 primary. this is one heck of a fermentation. basically what im saying is there is no way this could be the right reading. the reading was way off. i have never had this problem before.

[wortchillergoal]

All I can think of is temp of wort when you took your reading, human error as in you did not read it right, or have you and your housed checked for mercury you hydro is leaking.

[YamahaXS]

two things, which you have probably already thought of.

Did you adjust for temperature? even so, I would expect that beer to be around 1.08 or higher. Temp is unlikely to account for a .05 discrepancy. You probably have already thought of this and ruled this option out.

A more likely explanation is that somehow your wort was not mixed well, so that when and you pulled your reading sample it was mostly water...I remember I did this once, but I don't remember HOW I did it.

To test your hydrometer, put water in your flask and see what it is reading. tap water should be around 1.000-.002. If it is reading water accurately, then it should be reading wort accurately.

[mmmBeer...]

It is easy enough to calibrate your hydrometer. Fill your test tube with distilled water and drop your hydrometer in. If the temp is 68 degrees (check the hydrometer to see what temp it is calibrated at, usually 68), you should get a reading of 1.000.

Every degree above 68 raises the S.G. by a certain number. Your hydrometer package should tell you how much to adjust. So if your wort temp was 75 degrees, then the hydrometer reading would have actually been higher, once adjusted.

This will allow you to adjust for both temp and calibration being off.

PS, I have to buy a new one, just broke my old one the other night by dropping a carboy on it while it was soaking in sanatizer…

EDIT: Damn, Yamaha you just beat me to it as I was styping my reply :p

[barley ben]

yeah, i did think of the temp but didnt even bother to adjust for temp. it was 80 degrees went i checked it and like you said, thats doesn't make up for the at least 50 points im off. im not really too bothered by it for this batch because of the crazy activity thats going on in my carboy. somehow i got a bad reading but i know it was a bad reading(which i checked 3 times so i know it is the hydrometer) because 1.030 does not bubble like that. i checked the hydrometer and if looks fine and it gives me a 1.000 reading in straight water.. i dont know whats with the thing...

[YamahaXS]

Originally posted by barley ben
yeah, i did think of the temp but didnt even bother. it was 80 degrees went i checked it and like you said, thats doesn't make up for the at least 50 points im off. im not really too bothered by it for this batch because of the crazy activity thats going on in my carboy. somehow i got a bad reading but i know it was a bad reading(which i checked 3 times so i know it is the hydrometer) becauce 1.030 bubbles like that. i cheched the hydrometer and if looks fine and it gives me a 1.000 reading in straight water.. i dont know whats with the thing...

i am almost certain then, that your wort was not mixed very well, and your sample had more water, less wort in it.

sounds liek a huge beer. going to be a sweet stout?

[barley ben]

maybe your right. i checked it just after i put it in the carboy though. i poured it in really fast to aid in aeration. who knows, maybe i did a really good job and i just couldnt see any bubbles because i was absorbed in the water. just so nobody has to tell me this, i do know you dont want any bubbles in the test jar... but maybe the wort was already really aerated and i just couldn't see it. at least everything is going good now!

[barley ben]

i dont know what catagory it will fall into. the base recipe is a imperial stout but i changed it up so it will have some sweet stout and chocolate stout characters to it.

[barley ben]

i guess you could call it a Sweet Chocolate Imperial Stout!!!!!

[danno]

you ca't assume a hydrometer is accurate if it checks out at the bottom end of the scale...

http://www.knology.net/~sprevost/beerwine/cal.htm