Beer Forum

So, maybe I'm just lazy or maybe I don't want to waste beer or maybe it's a combination of both, but I rarely check my FG more than once or twice. Granted I tend to wait a long time to check it so I'm pretty sure fermentation has completed as I usually hit my numbers or close enough. Problem is now that it's cooling off, I want to brew more which means moving beer out of fermenters into kegs more quickly and this means monitoring fermentation by taking my readings more frequently. It will also help me better understand my process so I can make it more repeatable.

So, questions: how often do you check? Daily until you get repeated results? Do you use full hygrometer sample or a refractometer? I know the right thing is to bite the bullet and not be so lazy, and I figure if I drink the samples at the end then I'm technically not losing any beer. So, soldiers, what are your thoughts?

I tend to pitch heavy, use pure o2, nutrient, and active temp control and with my usual "house" strain of wyeast 1968/wlp002 most if not all beers are at TG inside of 4 days. I let them sit for 7-9 and then keg. So at day 7ish I take a reading and if its line with my mash schedule and grist make up (simple sugar vs more dextrin-ous malts) then I keg.

I do a side by side fermentation evaluation where I fill up my carboy with 5 gallons of wort and take a little remaining wort from the kettle and throw it into a sanitized pint glass covered with foil and a plastic bag. I pitch yeast into and aerate both and then monitor the gravity, clarity, activity, aroma, etc... of the beer in the pint glass so I don't have to keep dipping into my carboys. Works great for me.

In reality, hardly ever but I'm pretty familiar with my recipes & what they do. If I'm working on something new or something out of the ordinary is going on I'll monitor progress with a refract & when I'm pretty sure I'm there, 3 readings with a narrow range hydro a day or three apart.

Most of the time I forget to check to FG and usually remember are it's been kegged. When I do check it, I use a refractometer but you have to make sure you know what your OG was to calculate the correct reading (using Beersmith).

To clarify I only use my refract to monitor progress since the equations using the OG to give you a 'correct' reading are only slightly more accurate than the IBU equations, in that they're closer to reality than the IBU equations but just as inconsistent. For one beer it may be 6 points off, for another only 2. When I'm monitoring progress I'm really not interested in what the actual number is, but the change from the last reading. Once I'm not seeing any more change then I use a calibrated, narrow range hydro to get the actual FG. But like I said before, after brewing the same recipes over and over you get a feel for each one. That and I really don't care what my FG or ABV is, just that my fermentation is complete and to get a little info on my yeast for repitching purposes.

TheDarkSide wrote:Most of the time I forget to check to FG and usually remember are it's been kegged.

+1.

I use a good old fashioned hydrometer and check it twice usually, but that's because I wait until it looks like it's done then I check it, then I check it again a couple days later and it's always been the same, well there was that one time it was different, then I had to do a third check.

But yea, I pretty much wait until it looks like it's done and check it then check it again to make sure it hasn't dropped any lower and junk.