bought the wrong refractometer

I bought a salinity refractometer thinking that it was the same thing as a brix refractometer.

Just wondering if it will work for beer?

I took my hydrometer and did a reading of apple juice then put the apple juice in the refractometer and adjusted it to what my hydrometer said.

This thing has a specific gravity graph when you look into it.

I think as long as it'll measure the gravity range you want, you can use it. I read a thread where someone's refrac only measured up to 1.08. When they did something higher gravity than that, they'd dilute it with distilled water 50/50, then double the reading.

Use distilled or RO water to calibrate it. Use the apple juice to make cider

The scale is wrong so using water doesn't help. You have to calibrate it to scale.

From what I seen its showing 1.052 on my hydrometer and 1.057 on my refractometer

brewjunky said:

The scale is wrong so using water doesn't help. You have to calibrate it to scale.

From what I seen its showing 1.052 on my hydrometer and 1.057 on my refractometer

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Seems like calibrating to zero would be the same regardless of unit of measure. Maybe this page/chart (under brix refrac section) will help. Good luck.

Bought the wrong refractometer? FRACK!

Resetting to zero sends the readings totally out of wack because sugar and salt have different consistancys

Time for a new hobby: saltwater fish! (I have a SW reef and a salinity refractometer). You might be able to sell it to someone with a SW fishtank. Craigslist, or local fish shop, ebay, etc.

brewjunky said:

Resetting to zero sends the readings totally out of wack because sugar and salt have different consistancys

Click to expand...

You should be able to calibrate a salinity refrac the same as a brix. Put a couple of drops of distilled or RO water and set to zero. You can buy refractometers that have a scale for both measurements and just like the chart I referenced earlier, they both zero out at on the same line. If you know one, you can determine the other via charts online (if they're not already on your refrac scale).

Unless the temp is way off, or you're trying to get readings after fermentation (in which you'd need to calculate it based on both pre and post fermentation readings), your readings should be pretty straight forward. If the apple juice was 1.052 based on your hydrometer, then it should be around 13 brix and 11 g/100g on a salinity chart. How does that compare to the numbers you're getting after calibrating to zero w/ distilled water? Also, how high do your salinity readings go and what unit of measure (ppt, g/100g)?

From what I've seen in other posts, the only problem w/ using these kinds of refractometers is that the scale doesn't read high enough for most beers.
If it only goes to 40ppt for instance, you'd have to dilute the apple juice like I mentioned earlier in order to take a reading on your scale.

I just bought another one Ill try to sell the salinty one



That the difference between 1.033 and 1.038 is like 30 brix it seems it would be very hard to get an accurate reading

I think that specific gravity is a physical property that can be measured the same way no matter what the solute is, but I may be talking out my ass.

I just bought this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...6&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:1123#ht_4442wt_1016

-=jason=-

damnitbeavis said:

I think that specific gravity is a physical property that can be measured the same way no matter what the solute is, but I may be talking out my ass.

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Yep SG is a physical property.
Junky, what scales did the original one you bought have?

This seems to work. Calibrate it to 0 with distilled water. Then take your reading. if it comes up at 1.068 subtract 20 and the true reading is 1.048.

I've done this on a few different reading side by side with my hydrometer and its seems to be dead on.