BrewBalls?

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jbrookeiv

Crafted Magazine
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Anyone used these? Seem like a great way to know when to transfer to secondary, or when primary is complete, without having to waste beer by taking a hydrometer sample.

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_67_64&products_id=12581

Brew-Balls-web.jpg
 
for the amount of beer that is wasted i cant justify spending that on the "Brew Balls" Not worth it and not as accurate as a Hydrometer reading...
 
I haven't see anybody report on them yet. There was a question as to whether krausen getting on them would throw off the readings. I'd think ball park at best. Maybe good if you are doing a d-rest on a lager and want a clue on when to raise temp?

Yea, that's an interesting point. I would venture to guess that they'd be engineered to work with krausen.

Really, I would still take a final gravity reading when racking to my bottling bucket, but this would just save me one or two hydrometer readings.
 
Yea, that's an interesting point. I would venture to guess that they'd be engineered to work with krausen.

Really, I would still take a final gravity reading when racking to my bottling bucket, but this would just save me one or two hydrometer readings.
Krausen sticks to the side of a smooth carboy. There is no engineering involved in this really. You just have a plastic ball of a certain specific gravity. If they are highly polished it might help, but then again a glass carboy side is pretty smooth. At best I'd guess they can be used as 'rough' markers of fermentation progression.
 
He meant refractometer, but he's still wrong.

You can use a refractometer, you just have to do a calculation based on the original gravity to find the corrected final gravity.
 
He meant refractometer, but he's still wrong.

You can use a refractometer, you just have to do a calculation based on the original gravity to find the corrected final gravity.

My bad i did mean Refractometer... Can you please share that Calculation? I'd like to test that in my current brew...
 
Id like to see a review of them also. Krausen shouldnt matter as they work just like a galileo thermometer. Definately look interesting.
 
Here is a link where they start talking about brewballs. They seem to work pretty good.

Also, various programs do include calculations for your refractometer to work with fermented wort but here is a link for a better calculation. I have been using this and comparing it to my hydrometer and it seems very accurate. I know my Beersmith program starts to go off on very high attenuating beers as this article suggests.
 
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