Carter1932

Recipes 

I bought a refractometer a couple of months ago on eBay for about $25 shipped and it is wonderful. Wish I had not wasted money on a three different hydrometers, one of which broke.

Don't be put off by the price of refractormeter @ your LHBS. Find a generic cheap one on eBay and then grab of copy of Morebeer's brix conversion spreadsheet to track your specific gravity for all your batches.

I think you'll be happy with the more exact measurements a refractormeter provides and also only needing to use one drop of wort/beer to attain the result.

Cheers!

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Fermenting: Cream Ale
Secondary/Lagering:Nada
Bottled: Am. Amber, ESB, Oatmeal Stout, Old 7 Mile Pike Saison, JC Dubbel, Behemoth Imperial Stout, Garden Variety Brown, Jekyll Oktoberfests, Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, Lefty Vienna Lager, Munich Dunkel, Hefeweizen, Sm. Barleywine, Sm. Porter, Dunkelweizen & Helles Bock
Kegged: MLK Occupator, Trippel, JSC ESB & RyePA

LambChop4Prez

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Wow, I just looked at refractometers on ebay. SO MUCH CHEAPER!
Looks like I'm gonna be making a new addition to my brewing arsenal by the end of the day.
Cheers!

Randar

Recipes 

Yep, I haven't touched a hydrometer on brew day in over 2 years. If you do all-grain and still use a hydrometer, you're even more crazy.

Yooper

Recipes 

I love my refractometer! But it doesn't replace a good old hydrometer. It's a great tool for preboil gravity, and post boil gravity, but you still need to calibrate it with a hydrometer for the finished gravity. I use the refractometer pre-fermentation, and the hydrometer for post-fermentation.

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Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

strat_thru_marshall

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Prost!


I got the AHS Brix/SG model and it RULES

Carter1932

Recipes 

Yooper, presuming the refractometer is calibrated, why do you find the need to use a hydrometer for post-fermentation, presuming the FG is calcualted using the correct formula for fermented beverage (ie, Morebeer spreadsheet)?

Do refractometers need constant recalibration?

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Fermenting: Cream Ale
Secondary/Lagering:Nada
Bottled: Am. Amber, ESB, Oatmeal Stout, Old 7 Mile Pike Saison, JC Dubbel, Behemoth Imperial Stout, Garden Variety Brown, Jekyll Oktoberfests, Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, Lefty Vienna Lager, Munich Dunkel, Hefeweizen, Sm. Barleywine, Sm. Porter, Dunkelweizen & Helles Bock
Kegged: MLK Occupator, Trippel, JSC ESB & RyePA

drumming102

Recipes 

from my understanding alcohol can throw off the reading.

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Primary -
Secondary -
Conditioning -Coffee Ground Stout, Ed's crazy Apfelwein
Drinking - American light, Blue Moon Clone
On Tap- English bitter, BB Octoberfest, BB IPA
Surly Midget Brewery

neovox

Recipes 

That follows what the description on AHS's site says:

Once fermentation has started, the refractometer will no longer accurately read the sugar content of a sample because alcohol is now present. If you are using the refractometer for a final reading calculations are needed.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=12574

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BrewStreams - Homebrewing and Craft Beer News Aggregator

Carter1932

Recipes 

Thus the need from something like Morebeer's spreadsheet, or abacus.

__________________
Fermenting: Cream Ale
Secondary/Lagering:Nada
Bottled: Am. Amber, ESB, Oatmeal Stout, Old 7 Mile Pike Saison, JC Dubbel, Behemoth Imperial Stout, Garden Variety Brown, Jekyll Oktoberfests, Wee Heavy Scotch Ale, Lefty Vienna Lager, Munich Dunkel, Hefeweizen, Sm. Barleywine, Sm. Porter, Dunkelweizen & Helles Bock
Kegged: MLK Occupator, Trippel, JSC ESB & RyePA

ksbrain

Recipes 

I've been longing for a refractometer for a while, but the hydrometer seems to work just fine for me. With a refractometer, I could measure gravity of first runnings, last runnings, pre-boil, etc. But I have never taken these readings and get pretty predictable results, so I don't really see a need to do it. It would be nice to get gravity readings while fermenting with just a drop of beer, but it just never makes it to the top of my list.