How to Get Clear Samples for Refractometer?

[Clint Yeastwood]

I would like to know what other people do to get clear samples for refractometers. The Smartref instructions say to use a coffee filter. Well, that's great if you're taking one sample. If you're doing multiple samples, you have to use a new coffee filter every time, and you have to clean and dry whatever is holding the filter.

Are people really doing these things, or is there a better way?

 

[RM-MN]

My refractometer doesn't care if there are solids suspended in the wort. It measures the refraction of the sample, not the clarity.

 

[day_trippr]

^Yup^

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I hope that's true, but Anton Paar says to filter liquids.

 

[shoengine]

I never filter. The solids create a new floor that the liquid sits on.

 

[Bobby_M]

Get yourself a fine mesh tea ball and break it in half. Submerge it in the mash and suck some wort up with the pippet.

 

[RM-MN]

Anton Parr makes high quality analytical equipment and it may be that to get the highest accuracy with a refractometer the wort needs to be filtered but do you really care if your wort turns out to be 1.05467 instead of 1.05453? I feel I have done well to get within 0.005 of the expected OG and have made pretty good tasting beer that was off by .020.

 

[rlrohan]

I’ve never filtered the sample before but can see where fine particulates could alter the reading. Next brew I will do a side by side test with unfiltered and filtered through a coffee filter and see if there is a measurable difference. But I doubt there is going to be a big enough difference for me to worry about.

 

[dmtaylor]

In a hazy wort, the line will be fuzzy. Try to look where it begins to fuzz out on each end and take the average. Works for me.

 

[kevin58]

Never worried about it. Brew on.

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

push a bit of kitchen paper into a small glass, add a teaspoon of wort - wait 5.389 seconds, lift out paper and discard, add liquid to refractometer glass, hold refractometer pointing W by WSW any time between 0900 and 1400 at an inclination of approx 80 degrees and get three people to take the reading, total and divide by three, that will be near enough.....

 

[MaxStout]

For BIAB, I stir the wort to get it consistent, then stick the pipette between the bag and wall of the kettle to draw a good sample. Ditto for drawing samples for pH testing.

 

[Broothru]

I hope that's true, but Anton Paar says to filter liquids.

I agree. I use those K-Cup devices with mini- filters. Filter 15~20 ml into a shot glass, stir briefly to liberate any CO2, run it through the Easy Dens. In test batches (filtered and unfiltered from the same pipette) can vary by 0.02-0.04 SG. I consider the filtered sample to be the accurate one.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

push a bit of kitchen paper into a small glass, add a teaspoon of wort - wait 5.389 seconds, lift out paper and discard, add liquid to refractometer glass, hold refractometer pointing W by WSW any time between 0900 and 1400 at an inclination of approx 80 degrees and get three people to take the reading, total and divide by three, that will be near enough.....

Guy on Reddit says 5.387.

 

[micraftbeer]

Depends on your "refractometer". When I used the small handheld one, there was that little clear plastic bit that closed down and squished the wort sample flat before doing the reading. Seems like solids would not play a big factor.

I use a Milwaukee digital refractometer now, and that one you fill up a small dished area with your wort sample. On that I got really varying readings unless I dripped the pipette samples through a small kitchen fine mesh strainer (probably same mesh size as the loose leaf tea mesh balls Bobby mentioned). I can have really cloudy wort with tons of hop debris but if I drip it through that strainer I get repeatable results.

As for the EasyDens, I thought it was using some different physics, was not a refractometer. So maybe the solids play a different role there.

 

[Clint Yeastwood]

I have a Smartref.

 

[BrewZer]

Anton Parr makes high quality analytical equipment and it may be that to get the highest accuracy with a refractometer the wort needs to be filtered but do you really care if your wort turns out to be 1.05467 instead of 1.05453? I feel I have done well to get within 0.005 of the expected OG and have made pretty good tasting beer that was off by .020.

My eyes are only accurate to 2 decimal places.