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Secondary Lager Fermentation Slow?
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Some starting points for beginners:
Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine
I use hydrometer it gives you real gravity but you need more beer.
But when you calculate real gravity from refractometer you can use it.
The window for this method is from 4-4.5°Bx and I only used hydrometer so it may need little bit of trying to not get bombs.
Now I work in brewery and we use basically the same method, but because the tank caps work as regulated pressure relief valves, they are cooled... It is just more regulated and done before packaging (bottling and kegging).
Doesn't alcohol lower the density of the liquid, so that a hydrometer reading should have to be corrected as well to some degree? You sure now better than I do, but that was my impression.
Other than that, do you have a source for the numbers you mentioned? Something were I can go look stuff up myself, e.g. when I'm about to brew something very different?
Tldr of this measurement is that density is affected only negligibly (with low concentration of alcohol). Refractive index changes a lot.
These numbers were "discovered" by trying, maybe from some 15 yo Czech seminar my dad attended when he started. I just know that it works.
For sugar I am adding the least amount possible- it has some already ~3.5 °Bx and I don't want bombs.