Apparently, I have somehow managed to suspend Mr. Newton’s Universal Law of Gravitation and seriously call into question Mr. Einstein’s General Relativity theory right here in my own little home brewery.
After 5 days of extremely harmonious fermentation of an ESB that I whipped up, I thought I might check the gravity and see just how far it had progressed. I really wanted to taste this beer, so I went ahead and filled up my hydrometer tube. I grabbed a few drops and put them on the Refractometer (an RHB-32ATC) and it measured 6.6 brix. Then, I dropped my hydrometer in and to my surprise it measured 3.5 brix. (It measures brix and SG.) the hydrometer read 1.014.
I did both measurements from the exact same sample, at the same temp (70 degrees F) and repeated them several times. I double checked my refractometer calibration with RO water so I know it is reading correctly. Also, I used 2 different hydrometers to make sure that they were not the problem.
Finally, I tasted this beer and it’s great. I really don’t want it to go any further so I’m just going to keg it up and drink it.
Any thoughts on what the hell is going on with my instruments? What am I missing here? Have I somehow altered the physical universe or do I just have my head in my ass?
Rease
