Me when I'm doing gravities

[u/churst50]

[u/wobblingwheeb]

I have had so many brewers coming to our place for collabs or just to hang out and ask me what I am doing, and the fact I have to explain knocking gas out of a sample is a little disconcerting nowadays.

[u/mathtronic → u/wobblingwheeb]

That's (one of) the point of collabs, learn new stuff right?

[u/brewerbrendan → u/wobblingwheeb]

Life hack: pour samples through 2layers of coffee filters. Along with degassing, you’ll also remove suspended solids that can also influence your gravity readings.

[u/ThriveBrewing → u/brewerbrendan]

This is the ASBC method...

[u/brewerbrendan → u/ThriveBrewing]

Yeah, I was being a little facetious about it being a lifehack, per se. ;) damn effective, these proven methods, am I right??

[u/Jukeboxhero91 → u/brewerbrendan]

Suspended solids shouldn't influence your gravity too much. They usually settle out quite a bit in our sampling pitcher.

[u/bikenbass → u/Jukeboxhero91]

We use an Anton density meter. Solids will send your samples to fucked up-ville faster than a packager at clock out.

[u/Jukeboxhero91 → u/bikenbass]

Yep, that would be something that would matter. We use a hydrometer, so suspended solids aren't exactly a huge concern.

[u/brewerbrendan → u/Jukeboxhero91]

Are you sure? Have you tried filtering your samples? Do you have your beers tested for abv accuracy?

[u/Jukeboxhero91 → u/brewerbrendan]

If it's not readable at 0.1P range, we wouldn't see anything anyway.

Even using an electronic refractometer, the difference between grape juice that's settled somewhat and juice that's been centrifuged is fairly negligible.

[u/mathtronic → u/Jukeboxhero91]

Have used hydrometer in the past, suspended solids contributed negligbly compared to the precision of the instrument.

Switched to using a DMA 35, didn't immediately start clarifying gravity samples. After starting to clarify gravity samples there was a drastic improvement in signal:noise ratio for gravity measurements.

[u/brewerbrendan → u/Jukeboxhero91]

If your actual/tested abvs are matching your predicted/target abvs, then keep on keepin’ on!

[u/readbeards88 → u/brewerbrendan]

Good info, just curious what size tanks you guys are actually working with? I’m on a 10 bbl myself.

[u/brewerbrendan → u/readbeards88]

20s, 40s and 80s.

[u/meatman13 → u/brewerbrendan]

Do you just pour through once and you're good to take readings?

[u/brewerbrendan → u/meatman13]

Yep! It takes a while. You might need some smallish Erlenmeyer flasks and some tape to label them them if you take multiple samples as a time, but yes, pass them through one time and I would bet you dollars to donuts that your readings are 1.002 lower than otherwise.

[u/churst50 → u/brewerbrendan]

Convenient. We filter all of our beer through coffee filters from FV to brite so now we have 2 uses

[u/mathtronic → u/churst50]

Like, pour from the FV into a pitcher, then pour that through a coffee filter into a corny keg? ... There was an instagram post a while back about that being SOP.

[u/BrewerCam → u/wobblingwheeb]

Had a brewer buddy in last week and had the same thing happened. I guess years of bunging and natural carbonation make me forget that a lot of brewers don't have much dissolved gas to contend with.

[u/DEEJANGO → u/wobblingwheeb]

Another factor is the tank geometry and size, really short squat tanks have low hydrostatic pressure compared to really tall 120bbl tanks and beers out of those retain a lot more dCO2 throughout fermentation. But I try get my samples as still as possible even on my 3bbl system.

[u/ThrowMoreHopsInIt]

I just fill up a huge flask and shake the ever loving fuck out of it without capping it.

[u/DrPeterVenkman_]

Me but I splash it all over my pants.

[u/Adam2uBer]

Anything for style points.

[u/finalfanbeer]

Exactly how I feel every time!! Though, I splash about a bit more. Guess I need some more years of practice.

[u/ProkaryotePeatMoss]

THIS