Gravity consistent throughout vessel??

[blackbeer]

anyone know if the gravity of a beer is different when the sample is taken from the top vs the bottom of fermentor as in a spigot vs a thief? i'm thinking not but was wondering if anyone knew for sure.

 

[bobeer]

I've always wondered this myself but if you look at the yeast while they're eating up all the sugar it looks like the beer gets stirred up pretty well. I would assume the difference would be pretty minimal if there was any at all but this is just my theory, haha.

 

[MrHopScotch]

If you're doing AG or full boil extract there should not be any difference from top to bottom because everything gets plenty stirred up in the boil.

The only times I would expect a difference are after adding top-up water in extract or immediately after a sugar addition during fermentation. That said, the convection that happens during fermentation would have no trouble mixing everything evenly. So unless you just did one of those things, it should be the same everywhere.