Unless you want to spend a fortune or spend a lot of time fiddling about calibrating the machine, a refractometer is likely to be a waste of time.
Each tool has its place.
The key thing with a refractometer is to get one marked ATC (auto temperature correction), and use it as follows: put a few drops of liquid on the glass so that it is evenly wet when you close the cover; and make sure there are no air bubbles under the cover.
- A refractometer is ideal for monitoring the SG of your mash runoff while sparging: the reading is instantaneous and you don't need to worry about the temperature of the sample (because the few drops used come almost immediately to the same temperature as the glass)
- A hydrometer is much better to test the SG of a fermentation or finished brew, because the presence of alcohol will throw off the reading of a refractometer.
Personally I don't call £12 a fortune.
It's that easy? I might have to get one!My refractometer cost peanuts and is a faithful friend on brewdays. The main benefits are the speed and the minimal amount of wort needed for each reading.
To calibrate a refractometer take two wine glasses and a boiling kettle, place one almost upside down over the spout and the other below to catch the drops of condensate from the first glass, you only need a few drops of this distilled water to calibrate with.
Murphy's Law states if you buy one hydrometer it will surely roll off the bench onto the floor at it's first outing, but if you buy two, they will live happily together for many years to come.Get a hydrometer. And a spare hydrometer for when you inevitably break that one.
What he said.My refractometer cost peanuts and is a faithful friend on brewdays. The main benefits are the speed and the minimal amount of wort needed for each reading.
To calibrate a refractometer take two wine glasses and a boiling kettle, place one almost upside down over the spout and the other below to catch the drops of condensate from the first glass, you only need a few drops of this distilled water to calibrate with.
I find mine extremely convenient for keeping track of the wort gravity during run off, but I do find the hydrometer easier during fermentation - not least because I sometimes like a sneaky taste from the trial jarHaving just bought one of these I am interested in this thread. Will try the steam trick to calibrate, thank you to the person who suggested it. Mine has S.G and brix on it, but I've learned brix and S.G are not linear, so you should ignore the S.G. side, is that right?
I am using this excel spreadsheet from the Brewer's Friend website to try and work out my correction factor. I understand it will take a few brews before I have an average though. I plan to sack off my hydrometer altogether eventually.
https://cdn2.brewersfriend.com/wort_correction_factor_1.0.xls
Having just bought one of these I am interested in this thread. Will try the steam trick to calibrate, thank you to the person who suggested it. Mine has S.G and brix on it, but I've learned brix and S.G are not linear, so you should ignore the S.G. side, is that right?
I am using this excel spreadsheet from the Brewer's Friend website to try and work out my correction factor. I understand it will take a few brews before I have an average though. I plan to sack off my hydrometer altogether eventually.
https://cdn2.brewersfriend.com/wort_correction_factor_1.0.xls
Hydrometers? Refractometers? I think some here are waiting for me to stick me oar in ...
Hydrometers are cr&p. You break them at a moments lapse of concentration. I can't read them (nowt to do with focus, it's "fixation" and fine parallel lines if you want to figure that out). There's this "meniscus" business to deal with. And the Americans (and there's a few on this forum) use hydrometers calibrated to a different standard that will read at least one point differently, and other countries use different calibration standards again. And everyone knows hydrometers read at a particular temperature, but few seem to know they are calibrated to two points.
Refractometers were never meant to measure the gravity of liquids. and certainly not to measure the comparative gravities of a solution as it ferments and the proportions of different sugars change. But if you have an online calculator that allows for the calculated amount of alcohol and the type of sugar in solution (even if that is "assumed" and not expected to change) then a refractometer is very good for making quick and dirty measurements which wont be that far out. Calibrate with distilled or deionised water? What for? With all the assumptions you have to accept to use a refractometer, using tap-water is pretty insignificant.
So I use ... (yeah, some folk know what I'm going to say) ... a Pyknometer. It' just a bottle you can fill precisely without worrying about lines and meniscus. The disadvantage is you need good weighing scales that measure two decimals of a gram (not those cr&ppy Chinese drug-dealer ones) and you have to do some simple maths to convert to what hydrometers read (Otherwise they only provide the density, not the relative density or so-called "specific gravity").
A hydrometer imitates what one of these bottles allows you to read. Why doesn't everyone use one? Well until recently suitable weighing scales could set you back 200 quid, whereas now; you do still need to fork out 35-50 quid (but they do come in useful).
Rant over; I feel much better now.
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