Brew Day HangUp

[SkyBrew]

Hey guys it's 10:30am Monday 10/01, I was starting brew day and I pulled out my grain order from Northern Brewer and it is UNMILLED! I dont have a mill, any help or suggestions to save brew day?? Im on the Eastside in Evansville.

Thanks!!!!

Sky

[BREWsmith]

I'll be running home at lunch to let my pup out to do her business. If you'd like you can borrow my mill or bring your grains by to mill. I'm near downtown at 609 SE 1st. My cell number is 812-449-4535.

[SkyBrew]

Thanks Jeff, thats why I love our club!

[msjulian]

I work from home in Newburgh so if you ever need grain milled just call. As a matter of fact if it is much cheaper just buy it unmilled and come over anytime and we can knock it out for you.

812-480-5820

[SkyBrew]

So my "friend" dropped my ATC Refractometer on the floor yesterday during my brew and messed up the calibration to the point that the normal calibrating screw couldnt get the line to zero with distilled water. I took the whole thing apart and after about an hour of fiddeling I got the line back to zero on distilled water but Im concerned about its accuracy when the gravity increases, what are some ways I can test the refractometer at higher gravities for accuracy? like I'm thinking what would the gravity of 2 tbsp dme in 1 cup water or something along that affect. Any suggestions would be awesome

[Don]

You will need a hydrometer. Take a reading then adjust your line to that reading. You should also use distiller water for the 0.0 adjustment.

I check the calibration of mine every couple of brews anyway.

[SkyBrew]

I dropped and broke my hydrometer a long time ago, and I really dont want to buy another one. Got any other suggestions? (other then quit dropping your testing equipment!) I am looking for something that would produce a specific gravity that I could test it against.

[Don]

You will have to have a known sample to calibrate with. You are welcome to burrow one of mine. I've never done this but you could make up a quart sample and close it tight, maybe refrigerate it and use it over a time. But I would still check the sample once in a while. With all your testing equipment you should check its accuracy from time to time. I check my thermostat and refractor every couple of brews.

[SkyBrew]

Thats what I want to do, make a known sample to calibrate against but how do you know the sample's gravity if your only measuring utensil needs to be calibrated other then get another measuring utensil?

[Don]

You can't know accurately. DME can be a little different each batch, not much, but when you are calibrating your scale I think you are going to want it to be close.
You could use store bought beer to calibrate with. I'm not sure how much that would change over time.

[SkyBrew]

I think my neighbor has a hydrometer i can borrow, Im wondering if a cup of sugar in 4 cups of water will always yield the same gravity, or if it could vary depending on impurities in the sugar, or some other factor. I might keep a known sample in the future to verify calibration with distilled water at zero points is the same at 1.080 points. I guess I dont feel too confident in my refractometer after taking it apart. It would be nice to have something to verify the higher end against.

[Michael Erwin]

Doh, what's a refractometer? What's a hydrometer? I guess I should start measuring my wort again.

[msjulian]

I use distilled water and sugar water to calibrate my refractometer to my hydrometer. Here is a really good article on doing a two point calibration on a hydrometer.

http://www.byo.com/stories/projects-and ... techniques

You can then use the sugar water to make sure your refractometer matches.

It will be really hard to make sure you have the refractometer set right without the hydrometer. If you need one I have one you can borrow....

[Don]

I sorta see a theme here. Hydrometer!

[SkyBrew]

" you can make a sugar solution with a density equivalent to the average density of your wort. You can use this to check if your hydrometer reads correctly in that range.
For example, let’s say you brew mostly pale ales and porters and your target original gravity is SG 1.048. A specific gravity of 1.048 is equivalent to 12 ° Plato. (Actually 12 °Plato is 1.04838, but the difference here is only 0.38 “gravity points.”)

If you dissolve 12 g of sucrose in 88 g of water, you will have a 12 °Plato or SG 1.048 solution."


That is exactly what I was looking for thanks! Good discussion!