• Welcome to the new forum! We upgraded our forum software with a host of new boards, capabilities and features. It is also more secure.
    Jump in and join the conversation! You can learn more about the upgrade and new features here.

Question about BeerSmith, Refractometers, and final gravity.

perogi

New Forum Member
Joined
May 24, 2012
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Location
New Hampshire
Hello everyone - first post here :)

== Insert long post about what I actually did - see below for actual question  ==
I recently brewed and my starting gravity was 8.7 Plato (actually Brix but close enough).  Like a good newbie, I put the data into the "Measured OG" field on the Fermentation Page under "Into Fermenter".

Added the yeast and then let them do their thing.  Noticed that the krausen was gone and the bubbling was reduced to 2-3 bubbles a minute and took a sample.  Reading was 4.3. I then put that value (4.3)  into the "Gravity after Primary" field under "Fermentation and Storage".  I noticed that nothing changed in the Statistics section so I put that value into "Gravity after Secondary".  Still nothing.  A-ha!  I see the Measured FG under "At Bottling/Kegging" so I put the value in there.  Yay!  The Measured ABV now changes and shows a value that looks very low.

Now I know that these values are not accurate due to the inclusion of alcohol so I open up the refractbeer.xls excel sheet from MoreBeer and put in the values.  I get a F.G (Adjusted for Alc and Temp) of 1.008 which translates to 2.06 Plato.  This matches much more closely to the "Est Final Gravity" under "At Bottling/Kegging"  (this value was 2.401).

== Now comes the question ==

Should I be using the Tools => Refractometer => Calculation: Fermenting Wort Gravity tool to find the corrected gravity and put THAT value into the Fermentation => Measured FG field?

Thank you for any clarification!
perogi
 
perogi said:
Should I be using the Tools => Refractometer => Calculation: Fermenting Wort Gravity tool to find the corrected gravity and put THAT value into the Fermentation => Measured FG field?

Yes.  Either measure with a hydrometer or calculate the adjusted FG using the tool. 
 
Back
Top