I ordered a cheap chinese optical refractometer from Amazon to use for convenience instead of a traditional hydrometer. It seemed accurate enough after calibration, I don’t expect magic or lab results. Ballpark is fine by me.

I got suspicious when my cider and wine have kept stopping at 1.020-1.025 and nothing I whatever I tried would only make them bubble for another few days and reduce a couple of degrees Oe. So I did a reading with my hydrometer to verify. Yep, the SG for the cider ~1.000 and with the wine in negatives.

Checking out the refractometer it says it is for beer.

Is there a difference for wine and beer refractometers? Is is this refractometer, cheap chinese ones in general or is it me?

Cheers

Edit: twas me

  • lightnegative@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    This is a classic mistake people make to try and measure final gravity with a Refractometer.

    As everyone else has said, the alcohol in the solution throws it off.

    You need to use a correction calculator or just use it for initial gravity and get a test tube and float your hydrometer in it for final gravity