Brix meter?

[ny_spirits]

Just a little question: We need to buy a brix meter and I was wondering if there is a particular style or brand that others like?

Thanks!

[BWFiggins]

Just a little question: We need to buy a brix meter and I was wondering if there is a particular style or brand that others like?

Thanks!

Hello New York!

Mine is an Atago, and it is very accurate in its old age (20+ years). Make sure that you get an automatically temperature compensating (ATC) unit, and be prepared to pay $150 - $200. Why not consider a much less expensive degree Brix hydrometer? Get one of these with the built-in thermometer for adjusting your final reading.

Hope this helps,

Rusty

[ny_spirits]

Thanks for the advice Rusty. While I'd like to keep cost as low as possible, I would also ideally have a Brix reading without having to do manual temp correction as I am always trying to limit the possiblity of human error! But still, I will look at a hydrometer instead...

If we do go with a brix meter instead, is it smart to spend $300 on a PAL digital Brix meters, which I think are made by Atago? Or are the less expensive ones that look a little like the top of a clarinet sufficient? I found a couple that claim to have ATC and are listed for between $60 and $100.

Thanks again,

Sarah

[BWFiggins]

Thanks for the advice Rusty. While I'd like to keep cost as low as possible, I would also ideally have a Brix reading without having to do manual temp correction as I am always trying to limit the possiblity of human error! But still, I will look at a hydrometer instead...

If we do go with a brix meter instead, is it smart to spend $300 on a PAL digital Brix meters, which I think are made by Atago? Or are the less expensive ones that look a little like the top of a clarinet sufficient? I found a couple that claim to have ATC and are listed for between $60 and $100.

Thanks again,

Sarah

Sarah,

The optical type that have the prism (yes, resembling a clarinet) are perfectly sufficient. The prices have really fallen, too! Get some sugar standards to calibrate the high end of the scale, and use distilled water to check for zero.

Good luck,

Rusty

[coop]

We use a Refractometer to check our brix and it also gives me a approxament alcohol reading also. You can find them on the internet and we paid $39.00 plus shiping for ours. It gives us all the information we need to check that things are working right and we have all of the converting possible from our grains. Coop

[Ken]

We use a Refractometer to check our brix and it also gives me a approxament alcohol reading also. You can find them on the internet and we paid $39.00 plus shiping for ours. It gives us all the information we need to check that things are working right and we have all of the converting possible from our grains. Coop

Hey coop,

What brand/model do you have and how do you use it to aproximate alcohol content? I have a standard prism 0-30 brix and have suspected that as abv goes up, the reliability of the reading on brix goes down?

thanks,

Ken

[coop]

Hello Ken, the one I have goes from 0 to 40 on the brix scale and opposite it shows the approximate value degree alcohol. It is a hand held model #REF-513 ATC. When you look through it the left side reads brix and the right side gives approximate value of alcohol. No name on the unit. It is used by all fruit and grape growers to let them know how much sugar is in the fruit. We use all grains here to mash and produce our alcohol. I know the maximum amount of sugar I can expect to get out of our mash and i use it to let me know when I have converted all the starch to sugar in my mash kettle. Thus I can start cooling it down to transfer to fermentation tanks and add my yeast. I really never use the brix side as I am just interested in how much starch to sugar conversion I have. I think you can just search using the model reference and it might come up. I got it from some instrument company. Coop