More basic questions

[Daveweldz]

Couple more questions if you dont mind.
1.Does the PH change thru the ferminting cycle, in other words if you find you have a PH problem can you adjust it half way thru a run to the level it should have been at the begining?
2.Is the hydrometer accurate in terms of potential AV in mash with grain, molasis etc in it?
3. Follow on to #2 even if the hydrometer is not accurate the difference from the begining reading to the end reading gives you AV% ?
4. Other then spinning the Hydrometer how do you get a good SG reading when there are so many CO bubbles in the sample. Will they go away if you let it sit or will it just keep generating them.

Thanks

[HookLine]

1. Yes it tends to fall, and yes you can adjust it half way if required. I have not found it to be a problem, except when you are recycling backset, then you need to check pH at the start of the ferment. But it also depends a lot on the water you are using.

2. Don't know about grains, but it is unreliable for molasses based washes, due to the unfermentable solids.

3. Not as I understand it. If you are doing plain sugar or molasses based washes, I would not worry about using hydrometers. Just measuring the ingredients carefully will get you very close anyway. You can tell when a wash is finished by the lack of bubbles and sweetness.

4. Spinning seems to work okay. You can put the sample in the fridge for an hour or two, and the yeast will go dormant, and along with any sediment they will fall to the bottom.

I never use an hydrometer these days. Though I might when I start on the grain ferments.

[Dnderhead]

I do grains as is, no PH ajustment, they drop to excpable levels on there own.
what is left in mash will afect the reading ,if reading does not change in consecativ days, ferment has stoped when cleard take a reading ,,subtract from OG divide by 7.55= ABV