Refractometers

by Colin Kaminski
Take your brewing light years ahead. In our guide to refractometers, we'll show you how to
measure your wort's gravity based on how it bends light.
When looking for consistency in brewing, one of the
hardest things to achieve is a reproducible starting
gravity. Variations in mill gap, mash temperature,
mash thickness, water pH and water salts all play an
important role in hitting a consistent starting gravity.
One problem with measuring wort gravity during the
sparge or boil with a hydrometer is the need to quickly cool a sample large enough for your
hydrometer. I was using a one-liter flask in an ice water bath when a friend suggested trying a
refractometer. I thought this would be the magic bullet because I only needed a couple of drops of
wort to make it work. I quickly found out that while refractometers are very convenient, they
require a few mathematical corrections in order to be accurate.
Refractometers are most often used in brewing to obtain quick measures of the specific gravity of
unfermented wort. With a little more effort, however, you can obtain information about fermented
worts including finding the alcohol level in your beer and the original gravity from a finished
beer! The math involved can be challenging, but there are software programs available that will
do the math for you.
Fortunately I found there were many people before me that had done all of the homework in order
to make this a convenient instrument to use. Jeffrey Donovan of Sausalito Brewing Company has
written a wonderful program called ProMash that along with numerous other things includes a
refractometer calculator for brewers. I use this program all of the time. Louis Bonham has also
searched the professional literature and disseminated a lot of information on refractometry to the
homebrewing community.
What is a Refractometer?
A Brix refractometer is an optical instrument that measures the sucrose concentration in a sucrose
and water solution as a function of the index of refraction of the solution. The kind
of Brix refractometer that most brewers use does not contain any electronic components.
Refraction is what makes a pencil look bent when it is dipped in a glass of water at an angle. The
index of refraction is technically the ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum divided by the speed of
light in the sample. It is equal to the sine of the angle of incidence (the angle that the light enters
the water) divided by the sine of the angle of refraction (the degree to which the light appears
bent) of a beam of light. In equation form it is: RI = sin(I)/sin(r)
If you were to stick a pencil in a series of glasses holding increasingly concentrated sugar water,
you would see the pencil apparently bent to a greater degree as the sugar content rose. A
refractometer makes this measurement very easy and converts the index of refraction to Brix,
which is equal to percent sucrose. The refractometer uses the sample to bend light, projecting a
line onto a reticule made up of lines and numbers, allowing us to measure of the angle in which
the light was bent.
A refractometer looks like a little telescope. You lift a window and place a drop of fluid inside, wait
30 seconds to allow the refractometer to become thermally stable (also letting the sample spread
across the plate uniformly) then read the result in Brix. Brix can be approximately converted to
specific gravity (SG) by a simple equation:
SG = 1 +(0.004 x Brix)
Most people just remember the multiply by four rule. Take the Brix reading, multiply by 4 and this
will give you specific gravity in gravity points. For example, if you read 11 Brix, multiplying that
by 4 yields 44, which corresponds to a specific gravity of 1.044.
A slightly more accurate conversion formula is:
SG = 1.000019 + [0.003865613(Brix)
+ 0.00001296425(Brix) + 0.00000005701128(Brix)]
Using this formula, a Brix reading of 11 yields a specific gravity of 1.043.

Choosing a Refractometer
There are many types of refractometers. The type brewers use is the type fruit growers use to
measure the sugar concentration in fruit to see if it is ripe. It usually measures 0 to 30 Brix (1.000
to 1.120 SG) and this is a useful range for homebrewing applications. It is important not to get
one that measures battery acid or some other chemical solution as it will require unavailable
equations to convert to Brix and will likely measure the wrong range of refractive indeces.
Refractometers are available with or without automatic temperature compensation (ATC). ATC is a
nice luxury, but not necessary if you use a temperature compensation chart. (In simple
refractometers, ATC is done optically it is not an electronic effect.) They cost anywhere from
$75 to $300 depending on quality and features as well as country of origin. I have used the less
expensive models with good results. Since the sample has a very small mass compared with the
refractometer, it is only the temperature of the refractometer that is important in getting an
accurate reading.
Using a Refractometer
Using a refractometer is very simple. You calibrate the refractometer by cleaning the window and
placing a drop of distilled or RO water on the glass. Close the cover and make sure the glass has
no dry spots or air bubbles. Wait 30 seconds. Hold the refractometer level with the window
pointed toward a light source and look into the eyepiece. The meter will show a line between blue
and clear. This line will correspond with a scale on the side of the viewing screen. This is where
the reading is taken. Then adjust the calibration screw until the meter reads 0 Brix. Once the
meter is calibrated, clean the window, place a drop or two of the sample on the window and read
the value through the eyepiece.
Temperature Calibration
If you are using a model with ATC, you can simply use the reading you have. If you do not have
ATC, then you must use a chart included with the refractometer to get the compensated reading.
You simply use the ambient temperature and the reading to get a value that must be added or
subtracted from the reading to make the compensation. Do not use any temperature corrections
when calibrating your refractometer. Instead, ensure that the calibration is made when the meter
is at the correct temperature, 68 F
(20 C) for most meters.

Understanding the Reading

If a sample is simply sucrose and water, you can take a refractometer reading directly. If,
however, you are testing wort which is mostly maltose you must make a correction that I call
wort calibration.
Wort Calibration
Measurements of the specific gravity of wort using a refractometer will not agree with the
measurements of gravity using a hydrometer. Brix refractometers are meant to measure the
percentage of sugar in a pure sucrose solution. Since wort is not simply sugar and water, you
need to make a small correction because of the non-sugar components of the wort. The correction
factor is different for different breweries. Beers that are very dark or have a very high starting
gravity may also require a different correction factor. To calculate your correction value, measure
the specific gravity with your refractometer. Then chill a sample of your wort and measure the
gravity with a hydrometer. Convert the hydrometer reading to Brix using the equation: Brix =
(SG-1)/0.004. Then divide the reading of the refractometer by your actual hydrometer reading.
You should have a number between 1.02 and 1.06. If you do this for several worts and average
them, you will get a number that you can use for your brewery. Once you have this number,
divide all of your subsequent refractometer readings by your calibration number to get the actual
reading. For example, if your reading is 14.6 Brix then your corrected reading is 14.04 Brix
(14.6/1.04=14.04). Then, convert the measurement in Brix to specific gravity.

Once you have calibrated your refractometer and measured your wort correction factor, you can
obtain a measurement of your specific gravity quickly, without having to cool enough wort for a
hydrometer sample. You can use the refractometer to measure the gravity of your wort during
run-off to help you to decide when to stop sparging. Likewise, you can quickly obtain your gravity
anytime during the boil to determine if you need to keep boiling your barleywine or if adding
water to your best bitter is in order.
With careful use, a 030 Brix refractometer is precise to within 0.20.3 Brix. As such, it is less
precise than a good hydrometer. However, it can provide a quick measurement of gravity to
within about one gravity point at times when cooling the wort for a hydrometer sample would take
too much time.
Measurement of ABV
This is where it starts to get complicated. Fortunately Louis Bonham did a great job of researching
this method for homebrewers. You need to take a reading with the refractometer as well as a
hydrometer and use this equation:
ABV = [277.8851 - 277.4(SG) + 0.9956(Brix) + 0.00523(Brix2) + 0.000013(Brix3)] x (SG/0.79)
In this equation, Brix is the Brix reading of your refractometer and SG is the specific gravity
reading from your hydrometer.
If you try this, it is important to take very careful readings. Degas the sample in a blender or by
pouring it between two glasses until it does not foam. Make your reading at as close to 68 F (20
C) as possible. If your hydrometer is calibrated in Brix, use the longer formula I cited earlier to
convert it to SG. This equation fits very well with the data points. Measurement of ABV can be
made to within 0.3% if you are careful.
Apparent and Real Extract
What your hydrometer reads is the apparent extract (AE) of your beer. The real extract (RE) is
the actual percentage of sugar unfermented. You can measure this by taking the refractometer
reading and converting it to refractive index with this equation:
RI = 1.33302 + 0.1427193(Brix) + 0.000005791157(Brix2)
Then you need to plug the refractive index (RI) into this equation:
RE = 194.5935 + 129.8(SG) + RI[410.8815(RI) - 790.8732]
I like to know the RE as I find it correlates better with the perceived sweetness than the AE. If you
want to find out the gravity of a fermenting wort and you have previously
measured the OG, you can take a
refractometer reading from just a couple of drops of fermenting beer and put the results into an
equation to get the specific gravity of the beer. This has the advantage of allowing you to find if
fermentation is complete without having to gather enough for a hydrometer reading.
It is also possible to find the starting gravity of a fermented beer. Say you have a bottle of IPA
and you are looking for the starting gravity. You can take a refractometer reading and plug the
value into yet another formula.
I would highly recommend a refractometer as a way to read wort gravity quickly while sparging
and boiling --- and measuring the ABV of your finished beer. While the equations can be daunting
at first, they can be undertaken by anyone with a little high school math. Alternatively one can
use brewing software or make a spreadsheet to solve them.