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Odd, I've never experienced that sort of variance between readings, and my line also is pretty sharp, maybe 0.05 Brix wide. The only exception is when I take readings in the middle of a wine ferment, when there are little bits of grape skins floating around in solution. (And the only reason I...

Here's another way to think about it: what are you really trying to determine when taking a FG reading? Are you just trying to determine if fermentation is done? If so, then either tool will work since you're simply looking for a stable reading. Are you trying to determine if you've hit your...

I've been using a cheap refractometer for about 6 years now, for both brewing and winemaking, and I absolutely love it. You'll hear comments about how refractometers shouldn't be used after fermentation starts and how alcohol throws off the result. I did a lot of reading and hand wringing, and...

Just another data point. I'm on Day 10 of a Moose Drool clone using 3rd gen Wyeast 1272. This time I decided to take ~250ml of 12-day old slurry and make a 1L starter. It took off right away and had a huge 6" krausen, just like the first gen, and quite unlike my 2nd gen which only had ~1"...

Viability is how many yeast are alive. Vitality is how healthy they are and how well they can handle fermentation.

My starter spent 24 hrs on a stir plate, I cold crashed for 2 days, then I decanted and pitched once it reached the same temp as my wort. And right, I'm talking about vitality, not viability. I assume the viability was pretty high given there was only about 2 weeks between pitch and re-pitch.

I've puzzled over this for years and haven't come up with anything definitive. On 1/8/2016 I brewed an amber ale, OG 1.057, fermented at 67F. I made a 1L starter from a pouch of 3-wk-old 1272 and the beer had a 6" krausen. I kegged 2 weeks later and pitched ~1 cup of slurry into a pale ale...

Looking good. Brew away.

No complaints with the list, but some of the beers in the photos aren't great representations (e.g., the centennial blonde example is dark and murky). Don't mean to hate, it just kept coming to mind as I scrolled down the list.

Hey

I've been using this approach for a couple years now but until recently I've always tried to reuse the slurry within 1 week or so. A few weeks ago I pitched two pint jars of Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager that was about a month old and it took right off. It actually did better than the original pitch...

What Gavin said.

I've had one since they first came out and I really like it. Easy to clean, light weight, safe, see through. What's not to like. I don't have a spigot on mine though. One tip, wash it right away. It's a pain to get dried on krausen out of those little water drop texture things. Not sure why...

Larry

Whiskey

6.5 gal plastic Big Mouth Bubbler offers the best of both for me. Easy to clean, safe, light weight and see through. I reuse yeast and being able to see fermentation activity clearly made it easy for me to spot problem ferments, troubleshoot, and ultimately make better beer.

50% efficiency is abnormally low. Are you sure that's right? Also, 4 lbs between carapils and caramel malt is way too much, especially considering you're looking for a light body beer. Don't have time to write more but I'm sure others will have input.

This is the Standard/Ordinary Bitter I'll be brewing this weekend. It's basically the ordinary bitter recipe from the "Pale Ale" book, changed to include the yeast and hops I have on hand. OG 1.037 FG 1.010 IBU 33 SRM 9 Batch size 5 gal Efficiency 78% Calcium 50-100, sulfite 100-200, chloride...

Gilligan

Not sure what software you used but BeerSmith gives a few calculation options for refractometer readings. You need to select 'Fermenting Wort Gravity' and plug in your original brix reading in order to get an accurate gravity reading based on your current/final brix.