help me care about gravity readings

If a brewer is not taking the time to do a quick OG reading, I doubt they are putting in the effort to accurately calibrate their fermentor to ensure they know how much volume they actually have as opposed to assuming it is what it should be.

 

I think that's probably true because it's what I do. I don't usually take gravity readings, especially since my hydrometer rolled off the counter a few batches ago. After brewing on my old system for a couple years, I was getting pretty steady 75-80% efficiency, which was exact enough for me. I used on-line calculators to figure my anticipated OG and FG but didn't always take a reading.

As far as determining when fermentation is finished, I watch the krausen rise, I see it drop, I give my beers about 3-4 weeks in the primary, and I put them in the keg.

Since purchasing a new, larger kettle a few months ago, I should be taking gravity measurements but I haven't replaced that hydrometer yet.

 

Gravity readings are totally unnecessary ... as long as your beer is turning out exactly the way you want it to, every time.

If that's not the case, then gravity readings are something you're going to need as you troubleshoot problems and redesign recipes.

 

On my last brew day, I broke my hydrometer before I could get my OG. And wouldn't you know it, this was on a Sunday, with no shop open.

My only data for being able to guess where I started on the beer was a strong record of pretty consistent calculated efficiency numbers for my process and my system on many previous batches. I really like having good records to help me recover from the unexpected...

 

I'm a novice brewer, but I've not paid a whole lot of attention to that because I was focused on drinkable. Now I am because alcohol content has effects on flavor too. My OG now is 1.071 on an ipa. Im 2 weeks in an fermentation has pick up again.

 

The data are a pretty fundamental tool to how I understand beer. I can use it to infer and predict lots of things: alcohol strength, perceptions of dryness, body, mouthfeel. I can use the data to evaluate the efficiency and consistency of my process. Am I extracting and converting all the sugar from the grain that I should/could extract? Is my fermentation going to the point of completion, which will be important to getting the carbonation levels right for bottlers. I use the data to trouble shoot the process to improve my next batch and develop some consistency.

Do you need to use it to understand beer? Not if you don't wont to. People certainly made beer long before the hydrometer was invented, before the thermometer was invented, before it was known that temperature regulates enzymes in the mash to impact how much sugar is produced in wort. and before it was understood that yeast was an organism. If you want to ignore the details, you can still make beer. If you like what you are doing, don't change things. It's your house, it's your homebrew.

 

The need for gravity readings is way overblown, IMO. It helps to identify problems, but if there are no perceived problems, what's the point? (No need to fix something that's not broken) Early on, it was a handy way to see how certain aspects of my process were evolving (increasing in consistency). Not that I've pretty much got that nailed down, gravity readings are more for curiosity than anything else. If a beer seems off, I can always calculate the OG and FG after the fact to try and figure out what went wrong. I suppose it would feed my obsession for complete documentation, if I was so afflicted. I don't need the FG to tell me how dry the beer is - my taste buds tell me that. If they didn't, then it's a moot point. And if my taste buds seem to be at odds with what the FG would suggest, guess which one wins?

 

If you are using a pale you can pretty much eyeball it, but I certainly see your point.

 

I check pre boil gravity to see where/how efficient the mash, OG, FG to determine ABV

 

Yeah, but ... your taste buds can't tell you something went wrong until after the fact. And if you're not taking readings, you can't go back in time and take them. Unless you have a time machine. (You don't have a time machine, do you? Because it would be awesome if you did! You could go back in time and kill ******, invest in Twitter, fix whatever it was that went wrong with that dunkelweizen... lots of stuff. But I digress.)

Since I don't have a time machine, I usually take a pre-boil gravity reading, which helps me determine my efficiency and to make sure nothing weird happened with the mash. Then I take a post boil sample to see what the starting OG will be for my yeasties. Then I take another reading when fermentations seems done and taste a sample to find out my finishing gravity and to gauge whether it *tastes* like the yeast are finished.

You can calculate all those numbers later if something seems off, but the numbers you get will only reflect what *should* have happened if everything went according to plan, and they won't tell you what you need to know to fix your problem. If your FG was low, was it because your efficiency was off or did your yeast over attenuate? If the beer is a little on the sweet side, is it a recipe problem, or did you not get proper attenuation? You would have to have taken readings to know.

As I said above: if everything always turns out exactly as you planned, you don't need to take readings. More power to you. But I often find that even with my best beers, there are things about them I might like to try to improve, and gravity readings give me important info about how that might be done.

 

A BIG +1 to what @MLucky posted of: "But I often find that even with my best beers, there are things about them I might like to try to improve, and gravity readings give me important info about how that might be done."

Cheers!

 

I don't proactively verify the oven temp before throwing in a loaf of bread, batch of muffins, etc. If something comes out wrong and it appears that the oven temp was the culprit, I'll take a reading and fix it before the next batch. Since my beers tend to come out as expected, gravity-wise, I'm not strongly motivated to check the gravity every time I brew. I check it only after a batch doesn't turn out well. Otherwise, it's redundant.

 

So you're saying you *don't* have a time machine? Dammit...

 

I'm in the same boat as you. The only gravity reading I take is for the homemade starter wort. I will tighten the screws for competition beers. I've made good or great beer for the past 60 batches, or so, without gravities. I also not brewing for anyone else, (a wife, picky friends, etc.). I like most styles of beer and I'm pretty lackadaisical on the science side.

 

Gotta sample the wort/beer...so might as well take a gravity...on the other hand, if I forget...no big deal at this point.

 

If what you make is to your liking, then there's no reason to bother with doing extra steps. The beauty of this hobby is that it can pretty much be as simple or as complicated as you want it to be.

That being said - if you are bottle conditioning your beer, you have to make sure it is done fermenting prior to bottling. And while I have yet to have a batch not ferment all the way on its own, people swear you have to check gravity to ensure this has happened. Personally, if you like throwing some extract and hops into a pot, cooling, and pitching, without a bunch of other steps mucking it up, there's no real reason to take a gravity reading. You can ballpark your beer's ABV based on how much extract you add, and waiting a couple weeks after pitching will all but guarantee your fermentation completes if your temperature was reasonable.