Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

2257 readers

11 users here now

A community dedicated to homebrewing beer, mead, wine, cider and everything in between. If it ferments, bring it over here.

Share recipes, ideas, ask for feedback or just advice.

Some starting points for beginners:

Introduction to Beer Brewing

A basic mead primer

Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine

Brewing software

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Refractometers (self.homebrewing)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by whaleross to c/[email protected]

5 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I ordered a cheap chinese optical refractometer from Amazon to use for convenience instead of a traditional hydrometer. It seemed accurate enough after calibration, I don't expect magic or lab results. Ballpark is fine by me.

I got suspicious when my cider and wine have kept stopping at 1.020-1.025 and nothing I whatever I tried would only make them bubble for another few days and reduce a couple of degrees Oe. So I did a reading with my hydrometer to verify. Yep, the SG for the cider ~1.000 and with the wine in negatives.

Checking out the refractometer it says it is for beer.

Is there a difference for wine and beer refractometers? Is is this refractometer, cheap chinese ones in general or is it me?

Cheers

Edit: twas me

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] whaleross 2 points 7 months ago

Thanks! I'll look into it!