21 replies to this topic

[aleswutcuresya]

[font="Book Antiqua"]I want to purchase a refractometer for brewing beer. I called a vendor the other day and they said they only sold them for wine making? Every where I've looked the refractometers I find are for beer and wine. What's the difference, if any, and who has the best piece out there at the best price?Cheers

[Michael]

I bought mine off of ebay. I like it, but I still use my hydro for my "official" numbers.As far as the difference they are the same. You want one 0-32 brix if I recall.

[ncbeerbrewer]

I agree with the previous post. I brew all grain and I just use my refractometer for gravity readings while I do my sparge and my boil. I take an official gravity check with a hydrometer and then after fermentation gets going its just a hydrometer as well. I got mine off Ebay as well. Here is the one I bought about a year ago. Great product and great seller. I got mine for around $40.00 NIS salesEbay site

[zymot]

I got mine from Williams Brewing, $49.90. I have compared it against a couple hydrometers. Dead on.zymot

[djinkc]

This looks exactly like the one I bought. 0-32 Brix, ATC. That works well for brewing. I don't use mine everytime I brew but do more often than not. Not a necessity but a nice extra to have. Pretty good price too.

[boo boo]

[font="Book Antiqua"]I want to purchase a refractometer for brewing beer. I called a vendor the other day and they said they only sold them for wine making? Every where I've looked the refractometers I find are for beer and wine. What's the difference, if any, and who has the best piece out there at the best price?Cheers

I'm sure the refractometer won't know the difference between beer and wine on the prisim glass.Get one to go to at least 32 brix and ATC.I got mine off e-bay also for something like $40 CDN a few years ago.

[EWW]

I agree with the previous post. I brew all grain and I just use my refractometer for gravity readings while I do my sparge and my boil. I take an official gravity check with a hydrometer and then after fermentation gets going its just a hydrometer as well. I got mine off Ebay as well. Here is the one I bought about a year ago. Great product and great seller. I got mine for around $40.00 NIS salesEbay site

Have the same one, and I love it for monitoring my sparge. I also use it through out the boil to see how much longer I have to boil to hit my OG. Using this method I will adjust my late hops accordingly so I almost always hit my numbers now.

[Daryl]

I too got mine off eBay. They are constantly posting them for sale so don't get in a bidding war, be patient. I got mine for 20 or 25 including shipping. I use mine to take reading up until I pitch yeast. After fermentation starts I use my hydrometer.

[3rd party JKor]

Which seller did you guys get your refractometers from?

[jammer]

Not to hijack the thread or anything but I have a few questions for the refractometer users. Ive been thinking of buying one. I currently use a hydrometer. Honestly, i really dont trust them much... between the temp corrections and foaming/bubbles on the wort, its really hard to get an accurate, trustworthy reading, IMO. Why do you guys only use the refractometers for the initial readings, but not after fermentation begins? What are any other drawbacks of using the refractos?

[ncbeerbrewer]

Which seller did you guys get your refractometers from?

JK. I bought my refractometer from National Industrial Supply out of California. NIS Sales on EBay. I have had mine for a year and it works great. Spot on with the gravities. Ebay Link

Not to hijack the thread or anything but I have a few questions for the refractometer users. Ive been thinking of buying one. I currently use a hydrometer. Honestly, i really dont trust them much... between the temp corrections and foaming/bubbles on the wort, its really hard to get an accurate, trustworthy reading, IMO. Why do you guys only use the refractometers for the initial readings, but not after fermentation begins? What are any other drawbacks of using the refractos?

I love using my refractometer for reading of my SG during the sparge and boil. I like them as you only need a drop of liquid to get a reading as opposed to a lot more for a hydrometer. If you get a temperature correcting refractometer it takes all the guess work out of calculations. If you calibrate the refractometer then it should be consistant with your hydrometer prior to fermentation. Last week I brewed a Pale Ale. Refractometer said it was 14 plato and when I measure with that hydrometer I was at 1.056. You basically multiply the reading from the refractometer by to obtain your SG. 14x4= 56 +1000 =1.056. The question you ask about why it is not used after fermentation is because its meant to measure the refraction of light of a solution in regards to volume and sugar content. Once fermentation starts then that same liquid has sugar, water and alcohol. The alcohol thins the liquid and the refract can not properly measure that factor. It can be done but there are calculations and such that need to be done to accomplish it. Here is a link to homebrewtalk thread about this topic. Refractometer DiscussionHope that helps.

[3rd party JKor]

Good, that's who i bought mine from, too. $29.90 shipped. Nice deal. I can't wait to be able to measure my gravities during the brew without have to wait 10 minutes for the wort to cool down, then doing corrections on the reading.

[ncbeerbrewer]

Good, that's who i bought mine from, too. $29.90 shipped. Nice deal. I can't wait to be able to measure my gravities during the brew without have to wait 10 minutes for the wort to cool down, then doing corrections on the reading.

Nice. I think I got mine for around $35. Yes last year I attended a group brew with my homebrew club and one guy had a refractometer to check gravities. I bought mine after that and never looked back. I hated having to wait as you stated too. Enjoy the new toy.

[BrewerGeorge]

Any sucrose refractometer will do for beer. 0-32 Bx is the most common.There is, however, a correction required when reading wort to account for its maltose. Your brewing program will take care of the calculation, though.

[wengared]

https://cgi.ebay.com/New-ATC-Brix-Refractometer-0-32-Fruit-Sugar-Wine-Beer_W0QQitemZ230370716591QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a32a2baf$29.95

[consumptionjunction]

There is, however, a correction required when reading wort to account for its maltose. Your brewing program will take care of the calculation, though.

I have a Mac and no access to the BeerSmith or Promash softwares. Is the correction you speak of the same reason why we cannot just multiply by four and why each degree brix is a larger number of degrees specific gravity as the specific gravity increases? Also, I have two equations: SG = 1.000019 + [0.003865613(Brix) + 0.00001296425(Brix) + 0.00000005701128(Brix)]andSG = 261.3 / (261.3 - Brix)Which one is "right," or more commonly used? I can't remember where I got them from, but the second one calculates a higher SG. Does anyone have a better, or more trustworthy, equation?I was also wondering whether temperature of the wort resulted in a skewed reading. Would you get lower readings with higher temperature wort like you do for a hydrometer?- CJ

[MolBasser]

Not to hijack the thread or anything but I have a few questions for the refractometer users. Ive been thinking of buying one. I currently use a hydrometer. Honestly, i really dont trust them much... between the temp corrections and foaming/bubbles on the wort, its really hard to get an accurate, trustworthy reading, IMO. Why do you guys only use the refractometers for the initial readings, but not after fermentation begins? What are any other drawbacks of using the refractos?

Alcohol mucks up the reading (but can be corrected for) which is why many people don't use them to measure beer.As BrewerGeorge correctly pointed out, you will need to make some corrections for maltose.I like refractometers.MolBasser

[dondewey]

I've never used a hydrometer; I trust the chemistry and physics.

[BrewerGeorge]

I have a Mac and no access to the BeerSmith or Promash softwares. Is the correction you speak of the same reason why we cannot just multiply by four and why each degree brix is a larger number of degrees specific gravity as the specific gravity increases? Also, I have two equations: SG = 1.000019 + [0.003865613(Brix) + 0.00001296425(Brix) + 0.00000005701128(Brix)]andSG = 261.3 / (261.3 - Brix)Which one is "right," or more commonly used? I can't remember where I got them from, but the second one calculates a higher SG. Does anyone have a better, or more trustworthy, equation?I was also wondering whether temperature of the wort resulted in a skewed reading. Would you get lower readings with higher temperature wort like you do for a hydrometer?- CJ

I'm sorry, I don't know the manual calculation. I just let Promash do it.

[3rd party JKor]

I've never used a hydrometer; I trust the chemistry and physics.

I trust the chemistry and physics, but not the biology.