Hydrometer Advice: Downside to Brix Refractometer?

[meisterofpuppets]

Jeez, quit trying talk yourself out of moving into the 21st Century.

If your wort is well mixed, the sample will representative of the entire volume.

Thanks Pal. My concern about mixing is with HSA when I check gravity of first runnings or pre-boil gravity . Though this is probably minor and can be minimized with little effort. I'll also want wait to mix the cooling wort for a reading just before pitching. (Not worried about HSA at that point).

The other inconvenience I can see is in having to carefully stir the beer in the carboys for FG readings. Will likely re-suspend some yeast, so that I'd have to wait for a day or so to rack (even if I hit my target).

Sounds like I'm probably being a bit over-analytical here and should just bite the bullet.

Don't worry about HSA at any point. It's a scam.

[11amas]

What do HSA, the Easter Bunny, and Hot Lipstick Lesbians all have in common?


They don't fucking exist! HSA shouldn't be a worry pre-boil.

[Phil]

morebeer used to have a spreadsheet to convert post- or during-fermentation brix readins to SG but i can't find it. you need to know the OG.

I thought that spreadsheet was in plato. It was a long time ago, but I think that I tested it plato vs brix and ended up with correct plato readings.

plato and brix are the same thing

edit: they are interchangeable, but technically they are different scales

[andy77]

morebeer used to have a spreadsheet to convert post- or during-fermentation brix readins to SG but i can't find it. you need to know the OG.

I thought that spreadsheet was in plato. It was a long time ago, but I think that I tested it plato vs brix and ended up with correct plato readings.

plato and brix are the same thing

edit: they are interchangeable, but technically they are different scales

I don't think that they're interchangeable. Maybe i'm wrong but (according to below) at the higher gravities, there's a meaningful difference. Example: 19 plato and 19 brix are 1.078 and 1.082 respectively. Not an amazing difference, but 4 points is .5% abv and can throw off my refratcometer og/fg calculations.

http://beerbarons.org/pdf/brewingCheatSheets/refractometerBrixToSGConvertion.pdf

[Phil]

I don't think that they're interchangeable. Maybe i'm wrong but (according to below) at the higher gravities, there's a meaningful difference. Example: 19 plato and 19 brix are 1.078 and 1.082 respectively. Not an amazing difference, but 4 points is .5% abv and can throw off my refratcometer og/fg calculations.

http://beerbarons.org/pdf/brewingCheatSheets/refractometerBrixToSGConvertion.pdf

interesting. i was looking around a lot when i was making that part of my spreadsheet and everything said "yeah they're slightly different but don't worry about it". according to this it's just 1.04xBrix to get plato, so that's easy enough for me to change

[andy77]

I don't think that they're interchangeable. Maybe i'm wrong but (according to below) at the higher gravities, there's a meaningful difference. Example: 19 plato and 19 brix are 1.078 and 1.082 respectively. Not an amazing difference, but 4 points is .5% abv and can throw off my refratcometer og/fg calculations.

http://beerbarons.org/pdf/brewingCheatSheets/refractometerBrixToSGConvertion.pdf

interesting. i was looking around a lot when i was making that part of my spreadsheet and everything said "yeah they're slightly different but don't worry about it". according to this it's just 1.04xBrix to get plato, so that's easy enough for me to change

I've heard that "slightly different but don't worry" part before, too. And at 9 brix or 9 plato it's 1 specific gravity point difference. But I'm uptight enough to sweat 3 or 4 gravity points in my high gravity beers.

I think promash will do all this for us, even the og/fg refractometer calculation.

[DrYeast]

HSA is nothing to worry about, commercial brewers worry about it because they worry about everything, and they're also dropping hot wort from high up into a kettle, which is way more aeration than we're ever going to do as homebrewers (you COULD aerate your wort this much, but not by stirring your wort with a spoon. If you're smoking the cousin and are paranoid, just stir slowly without introducing bubbles.

As for co- or post-fermentation readings, don't bother with stirring, unless you added a heavy sugar during fermentation, I'm pretty sure that the differences from top to bottom of your fermenter are negligible. I haven't tested this, but if your wort was mixed before you added it to the fermentor, then it mixed as you added it, then it mixed when you aerated/oxegynated it, and then it mixed as the yeast were working (swirling and churning during fermentation), I think that your wort is as mixed as it's going to get.

You should worry about aeration after fermentation has really started (ie. nearing completion) as that oxygen won't get consumed by the yeast and could lead to early staling.

[Cuddly_Gus]

HSA is nothing to worry about, commercial brewers worry about it because they worry about everything, and they're also dropping hot wort from high up into a kettle, which is way more aeration than we're ever going to do as homebrewers (you COULD aerate your wort this much, but not by stirring your wort with a spoon. If you're smoking the cousin and are paranoid, just stir slowly without introducing bubbles.

I'm probably a little too paranoid about HSA. When I brewed my first all grain batch about 15 years ago, I made the rookie mistake of not using tubing to drain my mash tun. Just let it drop from the outlet to the bottom of the kettle. It was beneficial in that I learned exactly what oxidized beer tasted like -the box your Wheaties came in. But it was a bad enough experience that I now try to minimize movement of wort above 75-80F.

As for co- or post-fermentation readings, don't bother with stirring, unless you added a heavy sugar during fermentation, I'm pretty sure that the differences from top to bottom of your fermenter are negligible. I haven't tested this, but if your wort was mixed before you added it to the fermentor, then it mixed as you added it, then it mixed when you aerated/oxegynated it, and then it mixed as the yeast were working (swirling and churning during fermentation), I think that your wort is as mixed as it's going to get.

I definitely agree that the beer is well mixed through primary and through most of seconday. It's when I go to keg that I get concerned. I think with such a reduction in yeast activity, there will be some sort of a concentration gradient in that carboy. How severe? No idea. Probably insignificant. But I am going to pick up a refractometer and experiment when I keg my current batch just to satisfy my curiosity.


Thanks to all of you for the great discussion. Good stuff here. I'll post my results when I'm done in a few weeks.