Thoughts on hydrometers?

[Hawkbox]

Somewhat... I use them to make sure the temp is in the range at a glance.

Yeah it works well to see if things are wildly out of whack or not. But they're not super precise.

 

[Zambi]

I've only made a couple of batches, so take this with a couple kg of salt...
Hydrometers work easy, but I went and bought a 2nd hand refractometer as I make small batches and it's easy to use a pipet to take a sample. I use it mainly to see if fermentation ended.
Having said that: all my stuff is in storage, so now I got no hydrometer and no refractometer. I now gamble
But to be on the safe side, I bottle in 500 ml sprite bottles (PET). At least they will only tear if I got it totally wrong.
You now got a hydrometer, so the above is a bit irrelevant.
I would still advise to bottle at least 1 beer in a PET bottle as it helps to follow carbonation.
As for temperature: its definitely better to have a constant temperature than a fluctuating one. Check first for the temperature you can maintain, then find a yeast that works well in that range.
I got my baby fermenter in a coolbox and it seems to maintain 22-24 oC very well, with outside temperatures fluctiating between 6 and 34 oC!

 

[SabreSteve]

I've only made a couple of batches, so take this with a couple kg of salt...
Hydrometers work easy, but I went and bought a 2nd hand refractometer as I make small batches and it's easy to use a pipet to take a sample. I use it mainly to see if fermentation ended.
Having said that: all my stuff is in storage, so now I got no hydrometer and no refractometer. I now gamble
But to be on the safe side, I bottle in 500 ml sprite bottles (PET). At least they will only tear if I got it totally wrong.
You now got a hydrometer, so the above is a bit irrelevant.
I would still advise to bottle at least 1 beer in a PET bottle as it helps to follow carbonation.
As for temperature: its definitely better to have a constant temperature than a fluctuating one. Check first for the temperature you can maintain, then find a yeast that works well in that range.
I got my baby fermenter in a coolbox and it seems to maintain 22-24 oC very well, with outside temperatures fluctiating between 6 and 34 oC!

The hydrometer thing actually has me annoyed because Amazon somehow lost my package which should have been here 2 days ago. Just got a refund and ordered another one. I know for sure I can maintain an ambient temperature of 64-67 F so I figure as long as I use a yeast where that's in the mid-range I should be ok. I think I'm going to get temperature stickers to make sure nothing goes wildly out of control. I'm thinking I'm going to do the first brew without temp control as an experiment to see what kind of temperature gain I can expect from my setup and then I'll experiment with temperature control on my next brew.

 

[4Bentley]

You should be ok if you are doing an Ale. Most of the heat is generated in days 2-5. During that time I would make sure you don't insulate around the fermenter. I would also have a fan available in case the temp gets too high.

 

[Nosybear]

You should be ok if you are doing an Ale. Most of the heat is generated in days 2-5. During that time I would make sure you don't insulate around the fermenter. I would also have a fan available in case the temp gets too high.

That's when you want to drape wet towels over the fermentor. The evaporation will give you a few degrees of cooling, offsetting the few degrees of warming the yeast are producing. Put the fan blowing on the wet towels for additional evaporative goodness.

 

[Craigerrr]

^^^^^ FTW ^^^^^