A refractometer is a refractometer. It measured refractive index. You can put any scale you like on it and it is useful if that scale relates in a consistent way with the concentration of the substance to be measured. The Bx scale on the refractometers so many brewers try to use is tied to sucrose. Wort contains some but not very much of that. The other sugars found in wort behave with respect to density very much like sucrose upon which the Plato scale is founded. Regretably you cannot come up with such a scale for refractometer. What is particularly frustrating is that they get reasonably close much of the time but then along comes a wort that is off by a Bx or 2. A 'wort correction factor' of other than 1 is indicative that your refractometer has bias error. Or it could mean that you brew one type of beer much more than others. Knowing the wort correction factor will not help with the fact that a plot of Bx reading vs hydrometer reading is a scatter plot rather than a set of points tightly clustered along a line. This very phenomenon has been referred to in some of the posts in this thread. The wort correction factor may reduce the rms error by finding the best fit to your data but will not prevent you from getting wild readings from time to time. If only we could tell when those times were going to be.
I hate my cheap refractometer
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jwalkermed
Well-Known Member
Yup have one. Love it. Get one if it's in your budget.
Yes, I have a couple of them and they are fine for what they are intended for, And if you are OK being within half a Bx most of the time on wort knowing that you will be off by a Bx or 2 sometimes they are fine for wort too. That's just not accurate enough for me.
