The Best Refractometer?: My experience with several popular devices Since getting into the hobby, I've been down the rabbit hole on salinity specific gravity measuring devices I've had the Hanna HI98319 Salinity Pen, a $20 Amazon White-Label refractometer, the Milwaukee MA887 digital refractometer, a VeeGee STX-3 now the Misco Aquar-H2O digital refractometer
Which refractometer? | Reef2Reef Vee Gee Scientific STX-3 Handheld Salinity Refractometer with ATC, Industrial-Grade, 0-100% Salinity Range, 1 000-1 070 Specific Gravity Range, 5-Year Warranty https: a co d 15uuDhd Getting pricey, but quality tester These have gotten too expensive to be relevant for hobbyists imo… hence my Sybon recommendation
Thoughts: Hydrometer vs. Refractometer? | Reef2Reef A refractometer is likely a better choice than a hydrometer Before the hydrometer crowd jumps in and claims that you can get perfectly good results using a hydrometer too, yes, that's also accurate
Using a Refractometer During Fermentation - Homebrew Talk A few threads, and reading in the Wiki, have led me to believe that a refractometer is really only useful pre-fermentation to ensure that I'm hitting my numbers during the mash and boil, and then possibly again at the end of fermentation, to help calculate ABV and whether or not there's any
DIY 35ppt refractometer calibration fluid with normal salt water . . . For the refractometer only salinity matters right? or am I wrong? I was thinking really simple: 1 Callibrate refractometer with normal 35ppt reaction fluid 2 Add 1L RODI water in bottle 3 Add NaCl till my refractometer reads 35ppt 4 Use this bottle for callibrate my refractormeter back to 35ppt
Estimating ABV using Brix refractometer - Homebrew Talk I've been working on a web-based calculator to estimate %ABV from initial and final Brix Yes, there are polynomials that allow OG and FG to be estimated from initial and final Brix, and then one can use one of the many equations to estimate %ABV from OG and FG But that seems circuitous
Refractometers And Salinity Measurement | Reef2Reef Refractometer Calibration Assuming that a refractometer is made correctly for the fluid it is intended to measure, the way to calibrate a refractometer is to put a liquid of known refractive index on it, and adjust the scale’s position by turning the calibration screw (Figure 3) until it reads correctly
Hydrometer VS Refractometer - Homebrew Talk A refractometer measures the refraction of light Alcohol skews this, so the reading is useless once alcohol is in the mix The hydrometer reading would be the correct reading if fermentation has started There are some correction software tables available that attempt to help with the corrections, but none I've found are accurate I have found that Sean Terrell's (spelling might not be
Calibrating a refractometer with distilled water? | Reef2Reef The instructions on my VEEGEE refractometer specifically calls for using distilled water for calibration There are some true seawater refractometers that require distilled water for calibration For those instruments, RO DI is fine
Refractometer question - Homebrew Talk A refractometer does not read accurately when alcohol is present Fortunately, the equations for conversion to SG numbers are pretty accurate within 0 001-0 002 gravity units as compared with a real hydrometer