How to Use a Refractometer to Measure Specific Gravity 

used this video for my coursework. quite helpful

I used your video in my Physics class today. We are studying reflection and refraction so I was looking for examples of practical uses of Snell’s Law in industry. A 30% sugar/water solution has an index of refraction of roughly 1.38 compared to a 80% solution with index of 1.49. Thus the greater the amount of sugar in the water will cause the blue light to bend more and thus display higher on the scale-unfortunately class snowballed from there and we ended up spending most of class talking about different styles of beer and couldn’t get back on topic. Too bad really, last semester’s went so well when I used Archimedes principle to explain the hydrometer.

Chip Makes Every Video better

What kind of sorcery is this?

rsg-32atc -> calibrated and numbers are sharp but the gravity line is blurred, shades from clear to deeper blue.

Good video as usual!

Nice job, Chip

Just used this puppy in our Blanchard grinder coolant at the job

What other substances can the refractometer be used for? Looks like a very interesting tool.

hi sir, I have a question… I want to buy one of this with Brix and SG wort scale… funny thing, I see two kind of correspondence between scales… at 30 Brix is approx 1130 SG worth and another scale is 31 Brix is 1120 SG… what is wrong?

I've been using a hydro I purchased at my LHBS (for those of you who care). A refractometer seems appealing as it uses a much smaller sample and less wort is wasted. However, for some slow working yeast strains I may take several SG samples. If these don't work as well once fermentation is underway, I'm not seeing the value over my hydro. Can someone please elaborate?

Thank you❤️😃 Fans from Sri Lanka ❤️😃🇱🇰

Great video thanks

Can you use a Milwakee Instuments Digital refractometer? I have one that I use to measure salinity for my aquarium.

can it be used for milk?

does this need battery? what kind if so? thank you

can this be used in testing salinity?

What price

so by getting the SG of liquid using refractometer, we can also determine the density of liquids as per computation right??

Can you provide the calculation or formulas on your website (in addition to the calc tool)? They are very handy tools, but understanding the algebra is something I'd like to know, and cannot find any references elsewhere. Thanks!

Okay, so that's why I am not getting a good read. I just got a refractometer and i need first and last reads to determine SG. But I should be able to tell alch content with last read?

They sell the exact same thing on Amazon for about half what northern brewer has them.

you should mention that the SG scale on these is not accurate. You did mention that its an estimate though but were not clear on the inaccuracy of the printed scale.

I usually brew my wine to as close as 990 as I can. However the refractometer only go to 1000 as far as I can see? Can anyone please clarify? My conclusion is it won't work for me but maybe I'm missing something?

so a refractometer measures gravity the name refracto, shouldn't be measuring refraction or something logically related?

Buon giorno vorrei sapere come va una taratura

so after you take your first gravity reading of the unfermented wort, when do you take your second reading to get the specific gravity for the measurement of ABV? ta

They are good, but I find you really need to mix your wort after the mash/sparge to get an accurate pre-boil gravity. Also note that if it reads in Brix & SG, I would ignore the SG as it's not accurate. It's been added purely as a guide. And with the Brix reading, it needs to be converted to Plato. I also wouldn't trust the alcohol calculators online either 😂 but apart from that...

Is it viable for Kombucha?

How come 15 Brix don't align to 1.061. My scale is wrong too.

Sorry, I am confused what is Gravity?

I measured my kombucha sample in a first day of brewing and refractometer showed 7 BRIX so that means my kombucha had 7% of sugar in it. After a few weeks of brewing I measured my kombucha again and refractometer showed me 11 BRIX! Is there any way to measure real suger content in my kombucha now with refractometer?

I think I'll stick to my hydrometers, refractometers seem pretty limited.

Here because i want one for my reef tank, but i also make mead! Win win!

Opie uses it!

Guess the calculator was inaccurate and that's why you removed it from your website? And why not have the option to put in gravity before and after fermentation with a refractometer instead of just brix?

Thanks for the video. My new refractometer does not change in response to distilled water and then sugar-saturated water. I don't know if I am doing anything wrong. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

@mmpantsless13 right on. Need more people like you in the world. We need to cut out this amazon and eBay bs. Support your local homebrew shop. Pay a little more but your gonna have quality service and a real person there to help u in a crunch. Well put in your comment. Cheers

Here because i want to learn to make maple syrup :)

Hah I agree it's 9, but at least he put 9 in on the calculator at 2:20 :)

That may be true. But Amazon doesn't make helpful how-to videos for you, or have helpful people happy to answer your brewing questions. And when you drop your yeast all over the floor and need a new batch *now*, instead of tomorrow... Support your local brewshop.

sg refractometers are not accurate

Jamal ismaili

first the amazon ones are cheap and suck. second thing is...chip, 10brix? looks like 9 on the video...lol im sure it has something to do with how the light was trying to get the picture, but still funny

Looks like 10 to me. Your eyes not working?

The refractometer is not food safe. I cringed when they were letting wort drip off the meter and back into the pot. Prob the same people who dip their ph meter directly into their mash. Lol