National Shortage On Refractometers???

Just took an all grain class at Northern in Milwaukee, and was introduced to the wonders of the refractometer. Im in love. The worst part about it, everyone on the face of the earth is out of stock! Looking for one with a Brix/ Wort SG in a heavier duty aluminum with ATC (or the exact model that Northern Brewer has). Anyone have a heads up on whats going on?

Mike

Try eBay. They may not have dual scaled ones, but describing your gravity in degrees plato is cooler anyway. I got one with ATC for cheap. It's cool checking gravity of first ruunings, batch sparges, preboil, etc.

You know which nation doesn't have a shortage? China. $28 bucks and if it breaks buy a new one in 3 years.

+1 on ebay , I got expecting delivery within the next less then $40 shipped. It is actaully one for brewing, so on one side is plato scale and on the other side is a SG reading.

Made in the USA and $30. Have one and it works great! http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-0-32-ATC-Br...351?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33537bebef

How did you find out they were made in the USA? It doesn't say so on the auction that I can see.

Bobby_M said:

How did you find out they were made in the USA? It doesn't say so on the auction that I can see.

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Dudes a ninja, duh.

The Chinese version has SG reading & roughly the same price after shipping...

http://cgi.ebay.com/0-32-ATC-Brix-B...012?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c595f5d24

Northern just got em in today. Picked one up while I was there this afternoon.

Hmmm...they dont say it in the ad anymore. I bought mine from there a year or so ago and the ad said made in the USA at that point. Now it makes me wonder! The description is exactly the same though.

BrewNinja1 said:

Made in the USA and $30. Have one and it works great! http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-0-32-ATC-Br...351?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item33537bebef

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I just ordered one. Thanks for the link

Wow! I already got it! I am brewing today, too.

BrewNinja1 said:

Made in the USA and $30. Have one and it works great!

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I have one made in USA broken by me in the backyard how stupid is that?

mrk305 said:

Wow! I already got it! I am brewing today, too.

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I got one of these also. I ordered it on Thursday night, it shipped Friday and I got it today (Torrence, Ca to suburban Atlanta). I'll try it tomorrow. So, the seller is good and even the USPS comes through. Hopefully, the product is good...can't complain about the price at all.

Does the wort need to be ~60* to get an accurate reading of gravity with a refractometer?

cruckin78 said:

Does the wort need to be ~60* to get an accurate reading of gravity with a refractometer?

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No, however, the instrument itself should be somewhere near room temperature ie, not extremely hot or cold. I don't recall the exact range of the ATC feature which applies to the instrument, not the sample, but it's probably something like 50-80F or thereabouts. The users manual should have some info on this. The few drops of wort will almost instantly cool to near the instrument temperature, so no need to wait for it to cool. You can take the reading immediately.

Just ordered one as well.

If they only made them in stainless steel...sigh.