using a refractometer for beer - Methods and Techniques Discussions on Home Brew Forums

frydogbrews

refractometers are a great way to take gravity readings of your wort. the problem is that unlike a hydrometer, they don't give accurate readings once alcohol has been created. to do this you need some fancy math.
some of the brewing software has this built into it, but for folks that don't have those programs, you can use this link to punch in your brix amounts and get proper readings.
http://onebeer.net/refractometer.shtml
an OG readings is needed to properly calculate this, so don't forget that part.

frydogbrews

actually, i just used this and it told me my latest ipa was 9.5% abv and by hydrometer readings it should be 8.6%

anybody used these much?

Thym

i use a refractometer and have gotten very good correlation when i spot checked with a hydro. i have a spreadsheet that i use for the fancy math. I've shared it on other threads - it's my recipe calculator also.

Thym

Fry, if you still have your readings, i'd like to hear your results after plugging it them in here.

http://homebrewforums.net/software/refractometerwizard/publish.html

Thym

FYI - i just ran some comps, while the numbers are similar, i do get different results than those from the website in the original link.

I'm not saying which set of values is more accurate, but my numbers have never steered me wrong.

frydogbrews

Lakewood said:
Fry, if you still have your readings, i'd like to hear your results after plugging it them in here.

http://homebrewforums.net/software/refractometerwizard/publish.html

yep, i have everything written down in my notebook at home.
i will put them in after work and let you know how it goes

Thym

frydogbrews said:

Lakewood said:
Fry, if you still have your readings, i'd like to hear your results after plugging it them in here.

http://homebrewforums.net/software/refractometerwizard/publish.html

yep, i have everything written down in my notebook at home.
i will put them in after work and let you know how it goes

@frydogbrews any luck?

frydogbrews

Lakewood said:

frydogbrews said:

Lakewood said:
Fry, if you still have your readings, i'd like to hear your results after plugging it them in here.

http://homebrewforums.net/software/refractometerwizard/publish.html

yep, i have everything written down in my notebook at home.
i will put them in after work and let you know how it goes

@frydogbrews any luck?

i wrote the numbers down around here somewhere, hang on

Thym

Ha ha :) happens to me all the time, even with fancy spreadsheets.

CurlyFat

I use a refractometer during the brew day (mashing, sparging, all pre-boil stuff). For actual SG and FG readings I only trust my hydro.

I did learn that ANY amount of water left in whatever you use to drop onto the refract will greatly dilute the tiny sample. I made a 8% hefeweizen because of that once....

jlw

I'm thinking about buying this refractometer. What do you guys think?

http://www.homebrewing.org/Brix-Refractometer-w-ATC-Automatic-Temperature-Control-_p_1776.html

scoob

I think I have the same one, I got it on amazon for like 20-25 dollars

jlw

@azscoob does it work well? What about calibration?

scoob

Lemme check it out

scoob

Here is mine...

It calibrates easily, and so far no problems with readings, I have cross checked it against hydro on several occasions.

C_B

azscoob said:
Here is mine...

It calibrates easily, and so far no problems with readings, I have cross checked it against hydro on several occasions.

Same one I have from amazon I think. I've got a thread around here about it somewhere... Anyway, love it. No problems. Every time I've checked against the hydro it's been correct. The scale on mine is hard to read though, very small. It works and focuses fine but that part does annoy me.

Thym

It helps to read it with a good diffuse light source. If I don't point mine right at a florescent light it's usually pretty hard to read the tiny font.