Refractometer took a dump?

So this last brew day I was running a double batch and had something odd happen with my refrac.

Brewing a Am. Wheat and went to check my preboil gravity and I get a 1.020 on the refrac. hmm that seems extremely low to start out with so I grab another sample and run it again same reading.

Alright ill verify with a hydrometer so I use two different hydrometers and come out with 1.040 @ 65 degrees.

Can a refractometer all of a sudden just not read correctly and be that severely off? I had just used it two weeks ago and it was spot on. I always run hydrometer test when getting pre and post boil gratuities and they have always been very very close to each other. What happened?

Sounds like the calibration got messed up. You should recalibrate it with pure water to make sure it's reading correctly. Obviously it should read 0 with water.

+1. Generally they are pretty bulletproof. I always check the calibration before each brewday (Well, it's usually JUST before I want to use it when I remember I still need to do it...)

Is there any way to recalibrate these?

Mine has a screw on the top near where you adjust focus. Put some distilled water on it and turn it until it's at zero.

++1

I had the same thing happen. All of a sudden my efficiency dropped. Well it wound up my refractometer was out of calibration.

Use some water to test it and hopefully that's all it is.

So thats what that black knob on top is covering haha all makes sense now.

Well, didn't you read the instructions when you got it??

Homercidal said:

Well, didn't you read the instructions when you got it??

Click to expand...

What is this instruction you speak of......... they actually fell victim to the dog when I first got the thing a few years ago.

Punity said:

What is this instruction you speak of......... they actually fell victim to the dog when I first got the thing a few years ago.

Click to expand...

^Can't beat the classics...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

^Can't beat the classics...

Cheers!

Click to expand...

He views my things the same way I do....oooh look at the new toy.

But I dont mind holding down the cliche