Octavius
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 13, 2009
- Messages
- 248
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The refractometer has arrived and I'm excited to correlate the readings with an hydrometer. I'd like to calculate the "efficiency" of the system and also get an idea of the final abv of the beer.
The problem with taking a reading after the boil is estimating the volume. I have a calibrated dipstick for the keggle but don't want to stick it in cooled wort for fear of contamination - there is usually about a foot of hops in there as well so I couldn't get an accurate reading anyway.
Taking a pre-boil reading would mean waiting until all the runnings were in the keggle whereas I like to get the boil ASAP on the first runnings while I'm waiting for the sparging, just to lessen the hours on brew day.
It just occurred to me that I could take readings on the runnings and I would know the volumes because I use calibrated food-grade buckets for collection. Then calculate a weighted mean of the gravity points.
Does this sound feasible - I haven't seen it mentioned in the forum.
Cheers!
The problem with taking a reading after the boil is estimating the volume. I have a calibrated dipstick for the keggle but don't want to stick it in cooled wort for fear of contamination - there is usually about a foot of hops in there as well so I couldn't get an accurate reading anyway.
Taking a pre-boil reading would mean waiting until all the runnings were in the keggle whereas I like to get the boil ASAP on the first runnings while I'm waiting for the sparging, just to lessen the hours on brew day.
It just occurred to me that I could take readings on the runnings and I would know the volumes because I use calibrated food-grade buckets for collection. Then calculate a weighted mean of the gravity points.
Does this sound feasible - I haven't seen it mentioned in the forum.
Cheers!