Hydrometers and lost beer

[chertel]

@MYXBrew

As mentioned in another post, I only ended up with 7.3 beers in my last brew. Per several suggestions, I bought a hydrometer so I can start to learn how to use it. When I saw the video provided by NB, I saw that there was quite a lot of liquid used for the test. I have also read that you do not want to add this sampling of beer back to the batch, so it is a loss. If you are supposed to do this a few times, how much beer are you sacrificing in the process, and is it perhaps not a best suited practice for a 1 gallon batch, vs. a 5 gallon batch?

Some observations:

• If you are looking moving to 5 gallon brewing after you get comfortable with the process, don’t be concerned about losing that extra bottle. Focus on developing good brewing habits while brewing one gallon batches by taking the SG readings.

• If you are planning to stay with one gallon batches for a while, and you are fermenting in a 1 gallon carboy, get something bigger (a Little Big Mouth Bubbler®, a two gallon food grade pail, …).

• With a fermenter that actually works for one gallon batches (see above), add your wort and top off to the one gallon level in the fermenter, then add an additional cup (8 oz) of water. This will dilute the wort slightly, so you will want to fine-tune this amount (or adjust the recipe) over time. A typicaly SG reading will take 4 oz. You can follow what @flars suggests above (link) to minimize the amount of wort used to take a reading.

In summary: a one gallon recipe yields 10 bottles of beer with three SG measurements.