Does anyone else only take a pre-boil gravity?

[Yooper]

It's still more accurate to cool and measure. Gravity reading taken at high temps are notoriously inaccurate even after correcting for temp.

That is true. That's one reason I love the refractometer for preboil gravity. Use the pipette, let it sit for a minute, then put two drops on the lens and read! With a hydrometer, any reading taken over about 100 degrees is pretty inaccurate even with the temperature correction chart. I would cool the sample down to under 100, take the reading, and then consult the correction chart. That's pretty accurate.

It's all about being comfortable with your system. What works for me probably won't work for others. A few years ago, I did things a bit differently. Not better, not worse, just differently. I'm much more relaxed in my process, and my beer is pretty good so I'm happy.

 

[dummkauf]

That is true. That's one reason I love the refractometer for preboil gravity. Use the pipette, let it sit for a minute, then put two drops on the lens and read! With a hydrometer, any reading taken over about 100 degrees is pretty inaccurate even with the temperature correction chart. I would cool the sample down to under 100, take the reading, and then consult the correction chart. That's pretty accurate.

It's all about being comfortable with your system. What works for me probably won't work for others. A few years ago, I did things a bit differently. Not better, not worse, just differently. I'm much more relaxed in my process, and my beer is pretty good so I'm happy.

Plus, I use a hydrometer with a built in thermometer, which only goes up to 120F, so I need to cool it before I can get a temp reading either way.

And I have personally witnessed a BeerSmith corrected measurement having a 5 point difference between the same sample at 110F and 60F.

 

[weirdboy]

I take preboil readings with my refractometer, and I almost always take a post-boil hydrometer sample to taste.

 

[whatsleftofyou]

Interesting. I never would have guessed that the temp correction would be that far off. It seems logical that it'd just be a matter of a relatively simple formula. That's why I love this forum, learn something new all of the time.

 

[ArcaneXor]

That's kind of silly. Why?

Familiarity and laziness, to be honest. I should probably get back to taking those measurements more frequently, just in case.