Calibrating Refractometers

[daveisbludging]

For those who recently received refractometers, did you calibrate them using distilled water as per the instructions?

Dave

 

[Goat]

I boiled the kettle and used some condensed steam - that's got to be 'pretty' clean....

 

[Hoops]

Dave - I plan to calibrate it this week with distilled water before brew day.
Goat - I'm not sure how accurate boiled tap water would be as it's the added salts etc that would put your reading out. Anyone compared distilled water to tap water?? How close are they?

 

[jayse]

I just used tap water its all the same really, salts don't come into play with the refractometer if they did you would get different readings for beers with different water chemistry.


Jayse

 

[ant]

Hoops,

I calibrated with distilled, then tried water from the kettle for curiosities sake. My eyes couldn't pick it, but then again, my eyesights not all that flash...

It was actually pretty spot on when I received it, only about a half turn needed.

 

[Batz]

I used distiled water , it was spot on , did not require any change

 

[Hoops]

Righto
calibration with tap water tonight then
thanks guys
Hoops

 

[Gout]

mine was spot on when i got it, i used distilled water, i then tried tap and again spot on! so i dont think there is any difference

the eyesight will most likly be the biggest error

P.S i so love my refractometer had been testing cordial so i could make it exactly the same all night hehe now the family "know" i'm strange

 

[Doc]

P.S i so love my refractometer had been testing cordial so i could make it exactly the same all night hehe now the family "know" i'm strange

Damm straight that is strange. Why are you doing drinking cordial !!!!!!!!

Doc

 

[dreamboat]

Nice work Ben!

Once you have that flavour right, it is nice to know that you can replicate it for the next glass.


dreamboat

 

[Gout]

i have been in study mode for the last week so limited beer. I was up till 4am, still had 2 beers

I call it the liver cleanout, now that the exam is finished i am doing a brew to hammer the liver once more (infact i am brewing a light beer(bitter) to help the poor bugger out)

 

[sosman]

i so love my refractometer had been testing cordial so i could make it exactly the same all night hehe now the family "know" i'm strange

That's another one for the "you know you're a home brewer when ..."

 

[tdh]

Compared my refrac with tap, spring, rain and distilled water. Couldn't tell them apart.

 

[big d]

dont forget to calibrate the refractometer against your hydrometer.as was advised to me.then theres the temp variation which can be sorted via beersmith and im assuming promash has this feature as well.


cheers
big d

 

[Batz]

I won't be calibrating against my hydrometer , I think mt refractometer is much more accurate than that , still mines a cheap brewing hydro. they only work on the correct amount of lead shot in the bottom.
Calibrate with distiled water we do me

 

[Batz]

Having said that for FG I will of course have to enter hydro readings into beersmith , I think FG although important , can be out a little , my even continue to use the hydo there

 

[Guest Lurker]

Was standing in my kitchen today. Had thawed a 2l bottle of boiler residue, (which I had originally measured the gravity of) decanted off the break (leaving some malt behind), diluted a bit, boiled it to be a starter and was trying to guess in my head what the resultant gravity of the starter was. Doh! Why not take the merest drop, and measure it? Then, come to think of it, take another drop every 6 hours, plot gravity against time, and select my brewing day from the high krausen time predicted from the graph. Woohoo!

 

[Gout]

have i said how much i LOVE my new toy, 1 drop rather than 100ml each time
its great! monitor the sparge, then the OG, and i guess grav during ferment. with only wasting a drop each time _

happy happy joy joy

 

[Batz]

Happy happy
Joy joy

Lets all that have refractometers sing the happy happy joy joy song

I am sure Ren and Stimpy will join in

 

[Hoops]

Been playing with my refractometer and have tested my oatmeal stout and got a reading of 7 Brix
With a starting gravity of 1.056 my quick uneducated calculations through promash put the stout at 1.010. Is this right or do I need to change some settings?
Hoops

These things are cool!