refractometer

[sputnam]

i regularly use a refractometer when making beer and i have just recently started making wine. The meter is pretty accurate with beer but I am not sure of the readings i get with wine. The last batch of wine I got 27 brix - Sg and 16 brix - FG...this, in a calculator, comes out to be 1.116 and 1.057 and 9% ABV. While this sounds very plausible I would think that 1.057 would be sweeter than Georgia tea. I feel confident that the OG is ballpark correct and I checked the FG with the hydrometer and got a much different reading...any thoughts or suggestions? I don't need deadly accuracy, just ballpark numbers.

 

[jddevinn]

The FG calculators assume a wort correction factor that should be calculated for each different brew/wine. Likely the wine value is much different than the default beer value used in the calculator.

 

[Yooper]

Remember that, just like with beer, refractometer readings after fermentation has started are useless. The OG reading is fine, and actually probably more accurate for wine, since refractometers read the refraction of light in a sugar solution. But since the refraction of light is skewed once alcohol is in the mix, the higher the alcohol in the mix, the more the SG reading would be inaccurate.

The refractometer reading can tell you when fermentation ends, as the brix numbers won't change, but they aren't an actual reading of the likely SG.

There are calculators that some use for beer that work "ok" as long as you know your wort correction factor, but it's no replacement for a hydrometer reading.

here's a calculator some find using for beer (I don't know what the wort correction factor could be for wine, though, and my beer wort correction factor is something like 1.037): http://seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator/