Hi folks! I have a hydrometer, and I used it religiously to test for completion (engineer here, on the anal retentive side of the brewing continuum).
That having been said, I also hate it. Too much volume, the thief is a pain, etc. is the refractometer correction (for alcohol) really that unreliable? I was thinking today that switching to a refractometer and pulling small volumes with pre-sterilized disposable pipettes would be awesome.
I just don't understand the refractometer drawbacks. Anyone want to fill in this information? Does the correction change more with larger OG-to-FG differences? I saw a site with some math, but that was just a curve fit against hydrometer data. Is there a non-empirical formula?
-b
That having been said, I also hate it. Too much volume, the thief is a pain, etc. is the refractometer correction (for alcohol) really that unreliable? I was thinking today that switching to a refractometer and pulling small volumes with pre-sterilized disposable pipettes would be awesome.
I just don't understand the refractometer drawbacks. Anyone want to fill in this information? Does the correction change more with larger OG-to-FG differences? I saw a site with some math, but that was just a curve fit against hydrometer data. Is there a non-empirical formula?
-b