Again with a newbie question

[applejack-frost]

I ran a second batch and had much better luck getting it started. The activity started on day 3 and bubbled for about 12 days and I've had about 4 days of zero activity and it is quite clear. Originally I used a refractometer and got Brix 15 which is 1.0611 and had similar reading on the hydrometer. I just checked it now, with the photo attached it appears to be less than 1.0 but the refractometer shows Brix 5 which converts t 1.0197. Any idea why the discrepancy? Am I reading these wrong?

 

[Epond83]

I think refractometers have issues reading properly if their is alcohol in the sample. But I could be wrong on that one.

I do know refractometers need to to be calibrated for brewing and need to have a correction factor applied, at least for beer.

 

[DBhomebrew]

It's not so much that they have issues, it's just that you need to use a calculator to account for the presence of alcohol. Part II in this link...

https://www.brewersfriend.com/refractometer-calculator/
Yes, wort correction factor is a thing. It adjusts for the presence of sugars other than sucrose. I'm not sure how it applies to cider. 1.04 is the accepted default for beer wort.