Reading Hydrometers..

[cerevisia]

Still haven't quite figured out how to do this. Plus I'm terrible at Maths, but my OG was 1.041 and now it looks like it's at 1.010 or just under - what strength would I be looking at here?

 

Cheers in advance!

[Chris Reid]

4.1% by volume

 

[cerevisia]

Cheers, thanks! Someone said that also add .5 if you're using sugar drop when you bottle (which I am) so that'll boost it up to 4.6% :)

[MrC]

Your ABV will be just over 4%.

Here's a few links that should answer all your questions:

 

Reading hydrometers:

http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/hydrometer_use.htm

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

 

Calulating ABV:

http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/

[cerevisia]

Thanks for the links! :)

[Chris Mills]

Don't forget that temperature will affect your readings. Usually hydrometers are calibrated to work at 20°C. You'll need to add approximately 1 point to the reading for every 6 degrees over and vice versa when it's colder. So a reading of 1.041 at 26 degrees means the wort being sampled has a SG of 1.042.

[cerevisia]

Cheers Chris! Does this mean I may be looking at a higher %?

[Chris Mills]

Possibly. If the wort was warmer than 20 degrees when you took your OG reading then it will likely be a little bit stronger.

Here's an experiment to try: leave some water in the fridge and let it chill down and then take a gravity reading of it. It should look like your hydrometer is wrong and plain water is reading something like 1.003. Leave it on the bench for 30 minutes or longer and it should be back down to 1.000.

[Tilt]

I've found  this calculator  pretty useful on brew days as I draw off hot samples from the mash tun and kettle.  Helpful to know when to stop the fly sparge as I approach 1.010 and what my pre and post boil gravities are without cooling the sample.

[Ralph]

Aaaaaargh! My eyes. Why do people make ugly web pages like that when a plain background would make it so much easier to read??

[Tilt]

Classic - LOL - yep know what you mean, but the tool is the most succinct one I've found so I put up with squinting to make out the numbers.

[Dougal]

Hahahaha! Well I suppose he did say "dreaded".

[Tilt]

True to its name then... I s'pose we can't say he didn't warn us.  I might post him a link to this thread for some user feedback.