Coopers Hydrometer - How To Read

ChazMan · Post by **ChazMan** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 12:46 pm

How do i rad the coopers hydrometer correctly?

Is a small section that has a 'beer' range - am i looking to get it close to the green section at 10 ?

earle · Post by **earle** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 1:32 pm

Chazman,

Firstly make sure you spin the hydrometer so that no bubbles are clinging to it, they change your reading.

I don't have a coopers hydrometer but I reckon the 10 would correspond to a gravity of 1010. The beer will form a meniscus around the hydrometer which just means that it will cling to a bit higher to it than the level of the surrounding liquid. Normally you read at the bottom of the meniscus, get down so that your eye is level with the liquid level for the most accurate reading.

Commonly kits with dex will have a final gravity (FG) below 1010 but what you're really aiming for is the same reading a day or more apart. This indicates that the brew has finished primary fermentation. If you use more malt extracts, maltodextrin (body builder/booster) or certain types of yeast the FG will be higher than 1010. If you bottle as soon as it gets to the green range but before it has finished fermenting you run the risk of your bottles exploding.

Hope this helps

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 2:18 pm

the cooper's hydrometers are calibrated to be read at the upper meniscus. it says it on them.

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 2:20 pm

Calibrate it yourself according to the instructions so that you get an accurate reading. Also make sure you take all your readings the same way to ensure accurate measurments.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 2:33 pm

Kevnlis wrote:Also make sure you take all your readings the same way to ensure accurate measurments.

s/accurate/consistent

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 2:44 pm

rwh wrote:
Kevnlis wrote:Also make sure you take all your readings the same way to ensure accurate measurments.
s/accurate/consistent

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 2:49 pm

Hehe sorry, I'm being an idiot.

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 2:53 pm

rwh wrote:Hehe sorry, I'm being an idiot.

nah, I just didn't understand the s/ part. You are right, the readings will be both accurate and consistant, but will they be s?

Bags · Post by **Bags** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 2:56 pm

ChazMan,

If you feel the need to check your hydometer, simply fill a beaker with cold water (from your tap will do), twist your hydrometer into the water and check that you have a zero reading. Temperature will affect the reading slightly.

Furthermore, if you over fill the beaker with water it should spill out once the hydrometer has been immersed. Once the hydrometer has stopped spinning remove it from the beaker you will be left with a water level in the beaker. Mark this level with a permanent marking pen. From this point on, when checking gravity readings from your wort fill the beaker to positioned marked on the beaker and you find it much easier to read the hydrometer which will be at the top of the beaker. Another benefit is less waste and mess to clean.......

Cheers
Bags

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 3:00 pm

Bags wrote:From this point on, when checking gravity readings from your wort fill the beaker to positioned marked on the beaker and you find it much easier to read the hydrometer which will be at the top of the beaker. Another benefit is less waste and mess to clean.......

Cheers
Bags

if the gravity is higher, it won't come to the top of the beaker.. if it's lower (e.g dry enzyme, some ciders etc), then it'll still overflow.

Tyberious Funk · Post by **Tyberious Funk** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 3:23 pm

Kevnlis wrote:
rwh wrote:Hehe sorry, I'm being an idiot.
nah, I just didn't understand the s/ part. You are right, the readings will be both accurate and consistant, but will they be s?

s/ is geek-talk for "substitute"

And it's particularly old-school geek-talk at that.

rwh · Post by **rwh** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 4:08 pm

Yeah, sorry about that... guess it comes from being a geek (possibly even old skool geek... anyone remember 2400 baud modems?

) and using vim for all my day-to-day text-editing needs.

KEG · Post by **KEG** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 4:24 pm

i think i still have a 2400 baud modem somewhere.

Kevnlis · Post by **Kevnlis** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 5:12 pm

2400? Geez thats like the 80's! Were you even born KEG?

I started back in the days of 9600 voice modems mostly posting to BBS and IRC on 3.1 about '92 or '93 I guess

This was of course before "Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web" which opened my mind to incredible things on Opera's excellent browser!

Never looked back after that...

Still in those 15 years or so on the web I have never seen s/, learn something new every day.

Since we are so off topic anyway, who supports the Information-revolution.org movement? Ask Jeeves always was one of my favorite places to find out cool stuff because of the intuitive nature of the engine.

Rabbitz · Post by **Rabbitz** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 5:58 pm

2400baud? Luxury!!!
The very first modem I used was 300bps.

Rabz

lethaldog · Post by **lethaldog** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 6:49 pm

My god your all F@#ck%$g geeks, what the hell is goin on here

Tyberious Funk · Post by **Tyberious Funk** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 7:50 pm

rwh wrote:Yeah, sorry about that... guess it comes from being a geek (possibly even old skool geek... anyone remember 2400 baud modems? ) and using vim for all my day-to-day text-editing needs.

vim???

LUXURY! Some of us only had vi to work with.

Oh, and you aren't truly old school unless you've used an acoustic coupler.

Trough Lolly · Post by **Trough Lolly** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 8:16 pm

I never had enough money for the acoustic coupler - the best I managed was to scrape enough loot together to buy a disk drive to replace the cassette tape drive for the C-64.

I found some old copies of Compute the other day...

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 8:24 pm

Trough Lolly · Post by **Trough Lolly** » Monday Dec 03, 2007 8:28 pm

ahhh the good old days when net P0rn was colour pictures of the latest Apricot computer and it's shiny green screen monitor...