Right! Just have to define what end of civilization means, lol. Off by 1/2 A percent ABV is totally liveable and civilized enough for me
We care more about being precise for Spunding and knowing when to transfer the beer.
Does that answer my question? Not being sarcastic, just wondering if I’m having a stroke or something
I was just responding to your “off by 1/2 % ABV” statement. If that what you are concerned with, then who cares if you just SWAG the correction factor. OTOH, if you are trying to get accurate FFT readings, fermentation readings, or precise readings for determine transfer gravities, then it’s important to actually measure the correction factor.
If you mean this question:
I answered it already.
Disregard: I found one that works in brewers friend! I’ll do about 5 test each in about 5 different worts and see what my correction factor actually is.
I’m going to do this tonight with dme/water. I’ll do 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%.
Huge thanks do dmtaylor for typing up that thorough explanation!
Big thanks to Monk for johnny on the spotting me.
And thanks Denny for keeping it fun
You guys think dme will dissolve in room temp water? I might break out my stir plate for this project
Jim, I liked this idea and I don’t care about the super bowl hype I’ll miss. I just made up some samples with BOILING water and stuck them in the fridge to chill to room temp. Never thought to try with cool water, but hot works.
If I do decide to use the old refracto again, I’ll know my number! Thanks for the idea.
You betcha. I’ll try dme in room temp on the stir plate and see what happens. Actually, i have a bunch of precanned 1.040 to start with. Record my findings, add more… etc etc. I don’t think it needs to take 6 months of brew days to figure this out.
Something fun to do that should end up with easier results. Maybe even more reliable results, given that we’re learning that hydrometer in suspended solids is inaccurate
Hilarious! Thanks
Well, my samples (3) were all over the place, correction factor ranging from 0.93 to 0.98. I’m just going to keep on not using the refractometer, I don’t trust it. Part of why I quit using it. I’ll rely on my longtime experience that tells me my mashing procedure is solid! But hey, it was fun to give this a try. Hope you have better luck, Jim, I know you kinda dig that refractometer!
Made my day! 
Reinheitsgebort-bort-bort
So I’m thinking. Long ago when I got my refractometer it was reliable. Then at some point it seemed to become anything but (this little test confirms that’s still the case) so I just stashed and forgot it. Wonder if anyone knows of them just going bad? (It is a <$100 model.)
Seems to me the simple ones are totally mechanical, like a pair of binoculars. Maybe something got knocked loose. But my most likely suspect is that your solution was not totally homogenous. Big volume with hydrometer in it, measuring gravity of the whole volume… Then tiny variable sample on the refractometer.
Hence why I’ll be doing mine on a stir plate. 10 min stir, measure, add , 10 min stir etc
Did you recalibrate before each sample?
Either is possible. It got farther off the higher the gravity, and mechanical misalignment could do that, or the lack of homogeneity would be more of a factor as gravity went up. But I did try to avoid just that kind of problem with the samples, and if the cheapies are all mechanical, I’ll bet on jiggly bits inside the thing. Don’t really need it, won’t bother with it again.
Good lesson for anybody thinking of buying one – you get what you pay for!
And hydrometers and iodine are dead simple.
Not sure but mine cost all of $15 and is bang on every time.
Mine is Chinese cheaply too
Mine may have been ok at some point then, but it did definitely start wildly disagreeing with my hydrometer all of a sudden years ago. If I ever replace it I guess I won’t worry about price, though I’ve heard cheap ones derided by those with $3000 or whatever bench models. Of course they have to rationalize their investment!
I applaud you for actually reading it.
FWIW, I love my hydrometer and use it for OG and FG. I generally don’t know how accurate it is. Ball park is close enough for me.
I did check it against my hydrometer today. The Refractometer + BeerSmith calculator matched a hydrometer for the FG of a batch of blonde ale.