Hydrometer how use it?

[Lehmann]

Hi, as the first time brewing, I bought a Hydrometer how to use it?

How to use it at the 2 initial phases of the brewing?, I have in my mind from here 2/2/2 rule, but waiting 6 weeks is making me really anxious..... If I could reduce the first 4 weeks would be nice.

TIA

Lehmann

 

[RichardM]

I'm no expert, but I understand that brewing under pressure and using Kviek yeasts speeds things up.

 

[Gerryjo]

Hi, as the first time brewing, I bought a Hydrometer how to use it?

How to use it at the 2 initial phases of the brewing?, I have in my mind from here 2/2/2 rule, but waiting 6 weeks is making me really anxious..... If I could reduce the first 4 weeks would be nice.

TIA

Lehmann

Patience is a virtue and once your fermenter is free get another on the go to build up stock.
Your hydrometer will have a 1.000 scale and the plus side will read 1.002 and so on with the negative side reading 0.998 and so on with gradients of 0.002 between them .
Your wort for instance may have a Starting Gravity (SG) of 1.040 and it may have a Finishing Gravity (FG) of 1.010 giving an ABV of 3.98% though it must be measured at room temp of 20°.

 

[Fireside Ales Homebrewery]

waiting 6 weeks is making me really anxious..... If I could reduce the first 4 weeks would be nice.

In my opinion, The first rule of brewing, should be Time/patience. Beer doesn’t get there quickly. No wait, let me say that again GOOD beer is not made quickly. It takes time and patience to allow all the flavours to come together. It is true that Kviek yeast can turn a fermentation around in a few days. However, that doesn’t mean that you don’t still need to condition your beer for a minimum of two weeks. If you try and drink it too early you will soon become disappointed with the results.
There are plenty of really good ‘How to use a Hydrometer’ tutorials on YouTube. I find a visual tutorial is very helpful.
Good luck with the brewing

 

[damienair]

Another vote for YouTube. I only started at the beginning of December. I would say I watched hours of YouTube. There are amazing tutorials and how to videos including how to sanitise your gear correctly, read hydrometer and how to make your kit.
Patience is a virtue. My first beer was lovely, my second beer was even nicer again. I followed the 2+2+2 rule which as you say takes 6 weeks. I had the beer drank in 4 weeks with a little help from my next door neighbour, so I couldn’t keep on top of it. So I decided to have a break. I decided I would Brew away, but not consume my beers until I have a healthy stash. I now have 1 x Pink Grapefruit IPA, 1 x Oaked Apple Cider ready, plus a Blonde Ale conditioning and a Bavarian Wheat beer which I will be bottling this weekend. And at the weekend I will put on a Juicy Session IPA which will be ready in the middle of May. In perfect time for BBQ season and my birthday. At that time I will have 5 beers to choose from and as soon as I have enough bottles freed up I’ll stick on another brew. In that way I’ll always have something to drink. It’s hard, I’m dying to try the Pink Grapefruit IPA and the Cider but I’m staying strong.

 

[Lehmann]

Amazing

Another vote for YouTube. I only started at the beginning of December. I would say I watched hours of YouTube. There are amazing tutorials and how to videos including how to sanitise your gear correctly, read hydrometer and how to make your kit.
Patience is a virtue. My first beer was lovely, my second beer was even nicer again. I followed the 2+2+2 rule which as you say takes 6 weeks. I had the beer drank in 4 weeks with a little help from my next door neighbour, so I couldn’t keep on top of it. So I decided to have a break. I decided I would Brew away, but not consume my beers until I have a healthy stash. I now have 1 x Pink Grapefruit IPA, 1 x Oaked Apple Cider ready, plus a Blonde Ale conditioning and a Bavarian Wheat beer which I will be bottling this weekend. And at the weekend I will put on a Juicy Session IPA which will be ready in the middle of May. In perfect time for BBQ season and my birthday. At that time I will have 5 beers to choose from and as soon as I have enough bottles freed up I’ll stick on another brew. In that way I’ll always have something to drink. It’s hard, I’m dying to try the Pink Grapefruit IPA and the Cider but I’m staying strong.

Amazing your dedication on it. Where do you the bottles do you use, are they quite expensive?

Regards

 

[Lehmann]

Patience is a virtue and once your fermenter is free get another on the go to build up stock.
Your hydrometer will have a 1.000 scale and the plus side will read 1.002 and so on with the negative side reading 0.998 and so on with gradients of 0.002 between them .
Your wort for instance may have a Starting Gravity (SG) of 1.040 and it may have a Finishing Gravity (FG) of 1.010 giving an ABV of 3.98% though it must be measured at room temp of 20°.

I believe I got the idea, what would be the recommended value to add the hop? And the value to transfer to the bottles?

TIA

 

[Gerryjo]

I believe I got the idea, what would be the recommended value to add the hop? And the value to transfer to the bottles?

TIA

Hops can be added at high krausen or near enough to bottling and you only need a few days if that for the hops to release their oils and this will save off vegetative flavours.Bottle when your FG has been stable over two to three days or the end of two weeks whichever route suits you best.

 

[chris-s]

We're you asking about where to source bottles?

Friends, neighbours etc. is ideal.

But if all else fails, you can get screwtop bottles of pilsner from Lidl for 80-90p. The stuff inside is not great but not horrible either.

Helps keep your mitts off the good homebrewed stuff for a while too.

 

[nordberg]

We're you asking about where to source bottles?

Friends, neighbours etc. is ideal.

But if all else fails, you can get screwtop bottles of pilsner from Lidl for 80-90p. The stuff inside is not great but not horrible either.

Helps keep your mitts off the good homebrewed stuff for a while too.

WRT bottles, I was slowly building up a stock of 500ml amber bottles through buying/drinking them myself (the things I do for brewing ) and asking friends/neighbours to hang on to any they consume. I found it was taking a while and it was holding up my next brew, so I posted on the local community Facebook page to see if anyone had any kicking about - either brewers or drinkers. I got several replies and the next day I was the proud owner of around 100 500ml (and a few 568ml) amber bottles, including some very nice German swing tops.

It's definitley worth posting on local FB pages. I'll never buy glass bottles when they're so abundantly available for free.

 

[damienair]

Amazing

Amazing your dedication on it. Where do you the bottles do you use, are they quite expensive?

Regards

I have been buying a few craft beers at the weekends which come in 500ml glass bottles. So these are being collected. I also took a trip on a couple of days to the local recycling center and managed to rescue a good few bottles for my own recycling. And I bought 30 x 500ml glass bottles from a company. These were just €15 for 30 bottles so not expensive. But they are free in a recycling centre. I hung around the bottle bank and as people approached I asked them for their bottles.

 

[nordberg]

I have been buying a few craft beers at the weekends which come in 500ml glass bottles. So these are being collected. I also took a trip on a couple of days to the local recycling center and managed to rescue a good few bottles for my own recycling. And I bought 30 x 500ml glass bottles from a company. These were just €15 for 30 bottles so not expensive. But they are free in a recycling centre. I hung around the bottle bank and as people approached I asked them for their bottles.

I had a similar idea. There's a bottle bank just around the corner, I was going to leave a box next to it with a sign asking for 500ml amber bottles. I'm sure the local would oblige...