HELP! Is it essential to use a thermometer and a hydrometer when homebrewing beer?
This will probably be long You definitely need a thermometer. You don’t “need” a hydrometer unless you want to know the alcohol content of your beer. Hydrometer measures the specific gravity of liquid. You can use it to determine the alcohol content of your beer. It also helps when trying to determine when the beer is done fermenting (if you are following a recipe THAT closely) Usually when the bubbles coming out of the airlock are, give or take, 1 minute apart is when I consider it “done”. You don’t need it, but you may eventually want to buy one. All you need to make beer–other than ingredients is: – Stainless steel pot w/ lid (5 gallon should work) – Thermometer – hop bag – grain bag – funnel with a little screen (to filter out any solids) – fermenter (big enough to hold your batch) – air lock – Siphon tube, racking cane, some kind of siphon starter (DO NOT try to start the siphon with your mouth) You’ll also need cleaning supplies: – Some kind of sanitizer (I use iodopher but ones
