You may try refractometer with correction and then using hydrometer before bottling/when you need exact measurements. Other options are too expensive for homebrewers, like in our brewery we use device from AntonPaar that uses about 10ml per measurement. It costs about 5-10 times more than the pill.
Comment on Stuck fermentation?
Aarkon@feddit.de 4 months ago
For everyone involved and/or curious: I took a regular hydrometer reading last evening, which gave me ~1.011/1.010. So while not too far off, that is still significantly lower than what the Pill sees. Also, when taking some more time to observe, I realized that there is indeed still airlock activity going on. Now that I was sure there was still CO2 being produced, I then peeked under the lid and saw that the Pill had collected quite some dried trub on its waterline. After seriously sanitizing everything, I took it out, cleaned it and pitched it back, though that didn’t result in more realistic measurements. So I guess it’s down to a calibration issue.
What a stupid situation: The only at least halfway reliable measuring instrument after fermentation start remains the saccharometer, which requires a sample of 100 - 200 ml for each measurement, so you can’t do this every day for an elongated period of time without losing significant amounts of product for a batch if this size. Only alternative would be a transparent fermenter like the FermZilla and leave the saccharometer afloat the whole time. Not sure if I like that idea.
At least I got a taste sample this way and I’m happy to report that there is nothing weird going on. It’s not the biggest beer in the world, but summer is coming anyway, so that’s only a half bad thing. I’ll report back with pictures in a few weeks after conditioning. Cheers!
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plactagonic@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
drre@feddit.de 4 months ago
uh thanks for the update! I’m happy your beer is coming along nicely. personally I wouldn’t bother with hydrometer readings during fermentation. it sure is nice to see the numbers change but i find airlock activity to be just as good. i take a final reading after bubbling has stopped (only because I’m curious, never used the value for anything), and call it a day. anyways cheers!
Aarkon@feddit.de 4 months ago
I have my fermenter exposed to rather significant temperature deltas, so airlock activity maybe is not the best indicator in my case as the air inside expands and contracts. It would suffice of course just to measure daily with the refractometer to see if there still is activity. Not having to though is a tempting idea to me. 😄