Refractometer

This may be a stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyways. I own a refractometer with ATC that I use when making salt water for my salt aquarium tank. Can I use this same refractometer to measure the SG of my wort or do I need a refractometer calibrated for sugarwater and not salt water? Mine measures SG and PPM not SG and Brix.

Anywho, I am just curious about this. I would of course get a dedicated thief for my beer and not use the one from my fish tank.

 

+1

Sorry, no idea on the refractometer, but I lover the last sentence!

 

I, too, have the saltwater refractometer. No luck with it working for measuring sugar.

What do you mean you would use another thief? My corals love the taste of wort in the evening.

 

As IDrink stated, definitely won't work as is. There may be some kind of correlation you could come up with, but i have no idea how close the refractive indices of salt and sugar solutions are.

 

http://www.topac.com/salinity_brix.html

Dunno what the range of your saltwater refractometer is, but it looks like if it goes up into the 20% range you could use it for most beers.... you'd just always have to convert everything according to the table above. at least it seems to me that that would work.

 

I think my fish would love the taste of the wort too! :cross:

Thanks for the link. I suppose I'll just stick with the hydrometer for now.