philipCT
Brewniversity student
- Joined
- May 10, 2013
- Messages
- 771
- Reaction score
- 171
Tough brew day Sunday. Stepped up grain bill on an APA I've brewed before so I could sparge a little less deeply but still hit my numbers. The readings I was getting on the refract were whack. I ended up trusting them and added a gallon of water before the boil. Mistake! This turned out to be too much and undershot my OG by 5 points (1.052 v. 1.057).
Today I read just about every thread here and elsewhere about refractometers. I have good brewday notes and looking back over them I finally figured out the readings are all within 0.5 - 0.7 Brix and that is just not accurate enough for basing gametime decisions like wort dilution or additional boil time.
I have a cheap $60 meter from one of the online houses. It seems to be okay, but I seem to frequently get 3 different readings from 3 different samples and I have to just average them and hope for the best. Bugs the living crap outta me.
Believe me I calibrate every brewday (simple to do - and seldom actually needs any adjustment) and I cool all samples adequately and I brew inside so I'm not operating outside of ATC capability and I stir and mix wort before sampling so stratification in the BK is not the issue. It's boiled down [pun intended] to the basic inaccuracy of the thing.
I may just be a spoiled brat and spend to go digital. I'm just sick of bad brewday data.
Doesn't that level of inaccuracy bother anyone else???
Today I read just about every thread here and elsewhere about refractometers. I have good brewday notes and looking back over them I finally figured out the readings are all within 0.5 - 0.7 Brix and that is just not accurate enough for basing gametime decisions like wort dilution or additional boil time.
I have a cheap $60 meter from one of the online houses. It seems to be okay, but I seem to frequently get 3 different readings from 3 different samples and I have to just average them and hope for the best. Bugs the living crap outta me.
Believe me I calibrate every brewday (simple to do - and seldom actually needs any adjustment) and I cool all samples adequately and I brew inside so I'm not operating outside of ATC capability and I stir and mix wort before sampling so stratification in the BK is not the issue. It's boiled down [pun intended] to the basic inaccuracy of the thing.
I may just be a spoiled brat and spend to go digital. I'm just sick of bad brewday data.
Doesn't that level of inaccuracy bother anyone else???