Buying A Refractometer

[melinda]

G'day Men,
I know this has probably been done to death, but I'm interested in buying a refractometer. What sort should I get.(the price varies greatly on ebay) Sometimes my beer's OG is too low, will this help me rectify this problem? If it does, how?
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
Cadbury

 

[raven19]

Sometimes my beer's OG is too low, will this help me rectify this problem?

Not at all.

Your OG is relative to the amount of sugars you have extracted from your grain bill. If your OG is low, your efficiency is low.

How low is your efficiency? If its under 60% for a typical batch you might have an issue re grain crush, sparging technique, etc etc, if its above 60% then all is well.

I only hit 70% typically, and as low as 50% for big OG beers.

...

A Refractometer is great as you only need a small sample, but best only used prior to fermentation imo.

 

[bignath]

Sometimes my beer's OG is too low, will this help me rectify this problem? If it does, how?

Your beers OG is what it is....Buying a new piece of brewing equipment won't change anything.

It will change your process about how you measure it, but once you understand how to use a refractometer, you will end up with the same reading as your hydro (assuming it's calibrated and working correctly of course.)

Tip: dont get one with a massive range unless you want to start doing meads or some shit like that. The bigger range it displays, the harder it is to get an easy to view reading as the graduations are closer together.

My refractometer is right next to me, just checked it, it ranges from 0-32brix. If i had my chances again i'd go with something that maybe topped out at maybe 18 brix.

Roughly, gravity points are APPROXIMATELY brix reading X 4. Therefore, a refractometer that goes to 18 brix should in theory be good for beers up to approx. 1.072 - Big enough for me....



EDIT: Shit, you've really gotta be quick around here. Beaten to the point...