Life is good.

[Fingers]

The kitchen smells of Fuggles and malt and the hockey game is starting. I have good commercial beer in the fridge, a virtually unlimited supply of HB in the keezer, and all the teen kids are home. Except for a brief stint of providing assistance for calculus homework, life is good.

Just had to share.





Stay tuned for more drunken ramblings from Fingers as the evening progresses.

 

[McKBrew]

Sounds great.

It's quiet here, getting ready to plan a brewday for tommorow.

 

[Fingers]

Oh, and the brew day was initiated because my new refractometer arrived! I have a new brew toy to play with!

 

[VatorMan]

I'm into my Chimay brews I brought back from Belgium. You are right-Life is good.

 

[budbo]

Oh, and the brew day was initiated because my new refractometer arrived! I have a new brew toy to play with!

Cool let me know how it works, been contemplating one.

 

[NJTomatoguy]

what is a refractometer?

 

[Rezilynt]

Glad you're having it good. Not so bad here either. Visiting one of our daughters and the son-in-law took me to beer nirvana in Portland - John's Market Place Bottle Beer to go! Even found a Stone Vertical Epic

 

[Fingers]

Cool let me know how it works, been contemplating one.

Love it already. My hydrometer read 1.048 on the brew and the refractometer read 1.045. I calibrated it with distilled water first, of course. I checked an IPA that's been in secondary for three weeks with both as well. I used Beersmith to convert for me. The hydrometer read 1.014 and the refractometer read (converted) 1.011.

I think I'd sooner rely on the refractometer than the hydrometer. The hydrometer seems to be nothing more than a rolled up piece of paper shoved into a weighted tube 'just right', whereas the refractometer appears well built. Not the most scientific reasoning, but I'm running with it anyway.

I'd recommend getting one, especially for AG. I brewed an extract batch tonight but I'm really looking forward to checking my run off gravities when I sparge. It cost me just over $50 to my door and I'm a long way from the shipper in California.

 

[Fingers]

what is a refractometer?

Looks like this:

It measures the amount of sugar in your wort, just like a hydrometer but with only a drop or two of wort. It's temperature compensated so you don't have to worry as much about your sample. It is thrown off by alcohol in the wort, so you have to compensate for it. Like a hydrometer you have to know the starting gravity and then do a calculation. The calculation is lengthy so there are spreadsheets or other software (Beersmith) that will do it for you.

 

[bob1852]

you can get refracto's pretty cheap on eBay as well...

 

[mrfocus]

I think I'd sooner rely on the refractometer than the hydrometer. The hydrometer seems to be nothing more than a rolled up piece of paper shoved into a weighted tube 'just right', whereas the refractometer appears well built. Not the most scientific reasoning, but I'm running with it anyway.

Looks like your hydrometer is exactly 3 points too high.

 

[Fingers]

That does seem to be the case. I really should check the calibration on the hydrometer. If I remember, I'll do that today.