small batch brewers: what do you do?

[Semper Sitientum]

Ditto on the refractometer - drops instead of ounces. I take a reading after boil/cooling for my OG and then a series of readings to confirm when fermentation is complete for bottling and FG.

if you’re pulling a sample with 15 minutes left in the boil, are you cooling it down? Hot wort will not give an accurate reading.

 

[Ward Chillington]

What kind of fermentation vessel are you using? Could you drop your hydrometer into the brew......wait...better question...could you get your hydrometer OUT of the vessel if you dropped it into the beer to check FG? I use that method with my big mouth...

 

[Zambi]

Ditto on the refractometer - drops instead of ounces. I take a reading after boil/cooling for my OG and then a series of readings to confirm when fermentation is complete for bottling and FG.

if you’re pulling a sample with 15 minutes left in the boil, are you cooling it down? Hot wort will not give an accurate reading.

Yep. I try to let it cool down as much as possible and then use a temperature correction table.
I quite often have to anyway, as cooling down my sample in summertime, means cooling to 40+ oC

 

[Zambi]

What kind of fermentation vessel are you using? Could you drop your hydrometer into the brew......wait...better question...could you get your hydrometer OUT of the vessel if you dropped it into the beer to check FG? I use that method with my big mouth...

Yeah, lot of people tell me I got a big mouth....
But seriously, I suppose I could with most of my fermenters. Smallest opening is the 12 ltr speidel. I could get fishing line attached to the hydrometer to pull it out. But the vessels are inox and white plastic, so reading them would be an issue and I don't like opening them.
Also: I am not too worried about abv etc, so I figure I can take refracto readings and as long as they are the same for a number of consecutive readings, fermentation has ended.
As an extra security, I normally bottle in a couple of pet bottles as well, so I can keep track.of carbonisation.
Bit scared of my saison as they can keep on going. So couple pet bottles for control and everything else in swing tops

 

[Mark Farrall]

I'll do refractometer reading before pulling the bag, after squeezing the bag, near the end of the boil and post boil. Sometimes I'll do a hydrometer reading when I'm transferring to the fermenter, but only if I feel like I need to check the refractometer readings.

 

[Over The Cliff Brewing]

I get a post mash and post boil refrac reading. Then I drop the tilt in for approximate readings.

 

[The Brew Mentor]

For me, the small amount doesn't matter, so I get a hydro reading from the amount that comes out of my plate chiller and lines, post chill, but pre pitch.
I never take a reading during fermentation and really judge how it's going by monitoring the temperature fluctuations.
Before kegging, I fill my lines with beer and then push a little to insure no oxygen gets into my transfer and use that for the FG hydro reading.
If I were to ever go small, I'd just use a refractometer and use a correction factor.
I imagine you could do this a few times and compare that to an actual hydro reading and fine tune your correction factor. Then you will trust your FG reading without the end losses.
Hope this makes sense.

Cheers Brian