MyQul
Chairman of the Bored
Finally got around to calibrating my refractometer today. It doesn't half make taking gravity readings easier simply because you hardly need any wort/beer - literally two or three drops rather than 90ml or so.
It's a cheapo Chinese import but seems to work well enough. The Chinglish instructions are hilarious.
To calibrate you need distilled water. I watched a you tube vid of how to make some but I must have cocked things up because after I did the calibration I tested my latest brew (Oatmeal stout) and it came out at about 1.024 so I used my hydrometer to check and it came out at 1.009. So after a bit of googling I found out that you can calibrate using any sugary liquid you know the gravity of. As I know my hydrometer is right (actually it's two points out but I know this so can adjust for it) I just calibrated to 1.009 using the stout.
The refractometer is going to be really useful for things like easily finding the gravity of my beer after carbonation without having to de-gas the beer. Boiling down different concentrations for wort for yeast cultivation and taking gravity reading throughout my brew process. Overall I'm really pleased with it.
It's a cheapo Chinese import but seems to work well enough. The Chinglish instructions are hilarious.
To calibrate you need distilled water. I watched a you tube vid of how to make some but I must have cocked things up because after I did the calibration I tested my latest brew (Oatmeal stout) and it came out at about 1.024 so I used my hydrometer to check and it came out at 1.009. So after a bit of googling I found out that you can calibrate using any sugary liquid you know the gravity of. As I know my hydrometer is right (actually it's two points out but I know this so can adjust for it) I just calibrated to 1.009 using the stout.
The refractometer is going to be really useful for things like easily finding the gravity of my beer after carbonation without having to de-gas the beer. Boiling down different concentrations for wort for yeast cultivation and taking gravity reading throughout my brew process. Overall I'm really pleased with it.
