Refractometer vs Hydrometer- Which should you use For Mead, Wine, Cider and Beer Making?
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- Опубликовано: 9 сен 2024
- Refractometer vs Hydrometer- Which should you use For Mead, Wine, Cider and Beer Making? For a while I used a refractometer and got some pretty crazy numbers, so I switched back to my trusty hydrometer. I'd heard all the calculations weren't too accurate. Well... are they? Let's find out! Refractometer vs hydrometer, the test. There's differences in use, to be sure, but... which is better? More accurate? Easier? Quicker?
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Now that is incredibly topical for me because my refractometers arrived in the mail just last week! And now you did the work of finding which calculator works for me, haha. Thanks a ton!
I got from this that I will use my Refractometer from now on as the amount of Sanitising is way less, to make up a batch of sanitiser when I am not making a brew is a waste of time and product, it doesn't take long and I only need enough for the Hydrometer and Tube, but the refractometer I only need a sanitiser wipe which I have thousands of and they are always close by and ready to use.
I will check the price of the App and if it's under $20 I will buy it as that then saves looking up the website, one less move :)
I have a refractometer not for Brewing but because I am a Beekeeper and we need to know the water content of our Honey, I like that I can just get a couple drops from my Fermenter rather than having to get a larger sample.
We have a scale in Australia on Alcohol containers that say how many drinks it's equal to, we know that we can have two drinks in an hour and drive and we can have one drink per hour after the first two and drive, so by knowing a close estimate of how much alcohol, I can label my Bottles to say one glass is equal to x amount of drinks :)
Cheers for the video :)
Now here’s the video that was missing on RUclips for lots of home brewers! One of my daughter’s teachers has a refractometer and offered its use to my daughter when she was doing her mead science project last school year. As I knew refractometers only measured the amount of sugar in the must and wouldn’t be able to give an accurate reading as soon as alcohol was present, plus given the fact it only measured in Brix, that we were used to specific gravity and that we didn’t know about any reliable calculators, we politely declined. There’s a learning curve to the use of any piece of equipment. This project accounted for 30% of her grade for the school year. Best not risk messing with stuff we weren’t at all sure if they were reliable.
She ended up getting an A, by the way. A lot of the methods she used were gleaned from your channel. She just had to find scientific research to substantiate them so they’d be accepted for her paper. So… thanks for doing what you do!
Aeesome!
If you're ok with the investment I highly recommend an electric refractomotor. It's what I use. It's incredibly simple quick and ridiculously accurate. They measure by brix though. It's a good system of measurement to get used to a lot of wine equipment that gets used for mead, or equipment for making syrups, or for producing honey all uses brix.
Very cool. Glad to see you guys are okay and doing well. The biggest difference between a refactometer and hydrometer is the fact that the refractometer auotmatically caluculates for temperature differences while the hydrometer is usually calibrated for 68 degrees F (20 degrees C). The hydrometer comes with a chart and at the bottom is tells you the temperature it's been calibrated for and how much to adjust for temperature correction. A digital thermometer makes a huge difference in calculations.
Brix Units * 4 = Specific Gravity
Original Gravity - Final Gravity * 131.25 = ABV%
Dilution Formula:
Proof/Tralles Reading divided by Required ABV * Amount of Distillate - Amount of distillate = water needed for dilution.
I just bought a refractometer today. Thanks for this, I didn't know alcohol would skew the reading
It's funny because I just had a customer come in and I recommended her to watch your videos because she makes wine
Thanks!
Interesting video - the simplicity of the hydro wins for me and the using apples from my trees I have an element of control throughout…. however, recently I have been getting donations from people all over my village of assorted apples so taking a sample apple and squeezing a drop out onto a hydrometer would possibly be helpful in pinning down the starting point of sugars for their apples when out in the field, I think. I may be complicating my life with that though, and one of the great pleasures ( for me) in all this is ‘seeing what happens in the fermentation tub when Mother Nature gets to work’. Greetings from the High Peak in Derbyshire, England and take life one glass at a time xx
I head "Battletech" and was confused as to whether you'd started repping the clans or the inner sphere XD
Good episode, regardless.
Brian is left eye dominate. Derica is right eye dominate. I love how they are soooo compatible.
Brian is ambidextrous but his right eye is almost useless. :)
Watched a lot of your videos the last week and seems a lot of people don't understand how yeast function as a life form. The amount of yeast you add doesn't mean much considering it's doubling time is every 1.5 hours so if you put 1/4th a pack in vs the whole pack in 3 hours the 1/4th would have produced itself as much as a whole pack and doing half a pack only bought an extra 1.5 hours. They also produce via "budding" simple terms they clone themselves so no worry about too small an amount at start only concern is if what you pitched were alive at all. Also yes liquid gets at the top which would dissolve balloons and non-food grade plastics, from appearances it looks/smells like a mixture of methyl, ethyl alcohols and water.
if you do keep experimenting with the refractometer and find a method that works for you please share it.
the foam, miniscus, and distortion (from the plastic of the cylinder) always have me second guessing my readings so im curious about these instruments.
also I'm a beekeeper so it will be a nice piece of equipment to have
also i just love buying new tools so please make up a good excuse for me
I used to use a refractometer at work, the hospital laboratory. It was used for measuring protein content in spinal fluid though. Kind of funny how older lab equipment is being used by the public nowadays. Still gonna stick with hydrometer anyway, just because I like it 😁
I have a refractometer for my pool. I haven't tried it for brewing. Looking forward to learning something new.
I have a refractometer that lists specific gravity too. I like it for initial readings since a drop is a lot easier than the turkey baster. Plus, it leaves me feeling a bit like a pirate. 🦜
I use a refractometer for checking the sugars of the fruits and berries I plan on using in my brews.
Lol... I love the fact you just drank straight from the graduated cylinder... What a rebel. I have to admit, I've done it too. Also, you both are very welcome. I enjoy supporting the channel.
The thing I can see with the refractometer is that if you're taking a sample from a carboy or non-widemouth container, that little dinky pipette may need an upgrade on length to reach the brew.
Otherwise, great information!
True, but there are longer ones out there too, lol.
If you don't have any floaties, I'm sure you could use the end of spoon to get the drop of liquid you need 😜
Great video I believe both have their place I use both Cheers
Was the Sample too good to share or did Derica taste it off-camera? 😜
As always many thanks for the video. Always a pleasure to watch your content. 👍❤
I use a refractometer for original gravity readings (as well as pre and post boil gravity samples in beer), and a hydrometer for determining FG. My refractometer auto adjusts for temperature, so it's perfect for brewing beer.
Stratification can also be an issue while brewing. Easy fix at that point, since you can stir it without worry.
Thanks for this video.
I’ve been looking at refractometers.
Also I have recently fallen in love with Cisers
I don’t know if it was mentioned by someone else, but solids in the liquid will affect the hydrometer reading … like make it float more and imply a higher sugar concentration than there might be.
Well..
I'm a happy user of refractometer.
I use an app calculator and I made myself a sheet in Google Docs with the calculations.
I think that's an important info to use refractometer, you should calibrate every day, because the temperature of the ambient. And do not forget to take a time to the example that you took, reach the ambient temperature. (I already had 0.3 or 0.4 points variating...)
Ah, I calibrat with tap water. No problem.
After the final rack to bottle, I use the hidrometer.
And that is it.
No big deal to measure my mead and check the fermentation. :)
Great video and yes I also think a duel system worked out would give you all kinds of useful information and glad you found that app. I tried ordering that hard to break hydrometeor but none is available for delivery in east Asia so will be looking forward to my first broken glass one story :)
:)Truth I broke my fair share of hydrometers and it's such a bummer when you are in the middle of testing with no back for 24 hours. I now have 2 plus my hydro meter.
You have both the exact tools I do. I use the refractometer for OG, and the hydrometer for my late testing.
We may play around with both at times now :)
I've had some really inaccurate hydrometer readings, but I also take your word for the refractometer.
Better off just tasting it and taking a guess, if you're wrong, you won't care in a bottle or so.
Another thing woth mentioning is the price you're looking at. At my brewstore i can get a Hydrometer in the range of 7-10€ while a Refractometer starts at around 35€. Especially for beginners, when you start to put your first kit togehter, this is a corner worth cutting even if taking the read might be a little bit harder
THANK YOU FOR THIS , its actually so helpful
Take the hydrometer hold it fully submerged fill the cylinder to about 1/2 inch below the top. Remove the hydrometer take sharpie mark the cylinder. Bam, fill to that height. Never over fill again....
I enjoy watching your videos. I like that you go throught the process of making of the wine all the way to tasting. You've inspired me to make wine again. Ive always wanting to make a mead, i didnt know there was so many variations. Im currently making a tradional mead & a cyser using dates. 🤞
Id like to make a request for a tomato wine.
Thanks again for sharing!
Very very interesting and useful. Thanks guys!
Sad news I tried splitting my ginger beer because of the sugar I had a failure in equipment "new setup and all" and so had to pour the liquid and all of it went sour. I do have a proposed alternative for those using balloons; a food-grade plastic bag and tape. Fit or cut to fit the plastic around the lid and tightly tape around the plastic molding it to the neck but not taping on the neck itself leaving some space in the bag for air. This will require the gasses to go above the pressure caused by the tight bag to exchange forming a kind of airlock. I experimented with this on 3 containers and seems to work good as it greatly protects the blanket of co2 just make sure you can squeeze the bag and with some force air will come out. It's also good because if there is a failure it can pop the bag rather than breaking the container or building dangerous pressures.
Why not just use an airlock. They are inexpensive and will prevent more issues than a plastic bag.
as a Battletech Player from the late 80's I was VERY disappointed that there was, in fact, No Battletech in this episode... :(
I only break out the hydrometer when something doesn't make sense or I have something with a lot of suspended stuff like hop oils. In the end the FG is just for the book, so long as I'm in the ballpark I'm not really concerned about what the ABV is and I'm going to dispose of all the evidence anyway.
Very interesting, I might invest in one to learn more.. plus love the gadgets
NGL I definitely just bought one of these because close enough is close enough and a proper length test tube to make the hydrometer easier costs bout the same as the refractometer, and I also found a play store app called brewing calculator that has that refractometer calculator plus a bunch of other stuff on the free, so this will work well
I only use a refractometer for my beers, which are always in the range 3.55 to 4.10 abv (according to the correction factor that I use). I do not know if a measured 3.55 is actually a true 3.55. But it does not matter, all I need is consistency. The alcohol present in the finished beer makes refractometers and hydrometers inaccurate. But not to the extent that will worry a home beermaker.
I found the smaller cylinder is harder to read accurately because the hydrometer is more likely to touch the sides on either the top or bottom. Much more room in the 250ml.
As an amateur aquarist if I never have to hold another refractometer I'll die happy. It's all fun and games until you get too much saltwater on the face and it shoots into your eyes.
Nice video, you could use a small piece of air tubing so you could reach about half way. Same area as your other sample for consistency.
That other sample is 100ml though.. so it's still a larger size and should cancel out irregularity.
When I have too much foam in my cylinder to get a good reading I draw it out with a syringe.
Thanks guys real good information
broke my first hydrometer last weekend. Got two more to replace it.
Hey Brian,
There’s been a huge debate on a kombucha Facebook group. They are unwilling to even talk about hydrometer or refractometer readings for remaining sugar content. saying that the acidity and alcohol throw the readings off at end of fermentation. I have even went as far as to evaporate the alcohol which brought the reading up 2 points on my hydrometer “.5%”. I even showed a study from Kansas state that said the amounts were so insignificant that the levels of either wouldn’t effect the approximate outcome. Yes, they’re not going to be exact but will get you close to your remaining sugar content. I just wanted to see if you had any thoughts on the matter. Maybe get your wheels a turning so to speak…
The amount of alcohol in kombucha is meaningless to spgr. Acidity doesn't affect specific gravity either.
You can take a reading if you like to get an approximate idea of sugars in the final beverage.
Sorry,,I watched your vidio on testing Hydrometers,,,,{ Hydopators}.....and how much they differ,,,,so i weighed it up,,,the chance off spoiling the wine using a hydrometer , with the invasiveness, then might be 4 points of,,,then just taking a drop from the wine....using a Refractometer....i went for the later....But..im just starting wine making,,,,thanks to you two,,,and i DO THANK YOU,,,great hobby,,,so best i thought to get used to the refractometer,,,as you have the Hydrometer....you two have a great day....and once again thank you,,,,ps my wine is crap...but can only get better....lol
Just remember that refractometers have to be calibrated for different fluids. If you are a beekeeper and your refractometer is calibrated for honey, it would need to be re-calibrated for this use. This would be annoying if having to re-calibrate every time you swap between uses.
Mine is set up for water.
I use Brewer's Friend to get my ABV, instead of doing the calculations all the time.
A update of this video with the new Digital Brix Refractometer you guys have would be great. I can't remember what video you use it in but I remember you saying you liked it
We actually gave it away during Steadfest.
I am using a refracometer to find the water content in the local honey bought
That’s a specific kind right?
@@CitySteadingBrews not that i know of, im mixing a certain volume of honey with a certain volume of water, so 75ml of water to 25ml of honey, the resulting refracometer reading should give the difference on how much extra water is in the honey
Ahh yeah that makes sense :)
its all about tempature with Refractometer. I leave mine out for a while with my sample liquid to reach room temp. It becomes more accurate.
Ours is at the same temp as the liquid...
Digital ones are the most accurate and easiest to use of all but are stupidly expensive.
Seems that way, yep. :)
The rule in the EU (not only the Netherlands) states that the error may not be more than half of the last given unit. EG if you claim something is 1 litre, allowed error is half a litre. If you state 1000 ml, it's allowed to be 999,5 to 1000,5 ml.
Error for what? Not following...
@@CitySteadingBrews error of measurement / reading. So a pack of milk of "1 litre" could in principle contain between 0,5-1,5 litre whereas a pack containing "1000 millilitres" could contain 999,5 to 1000,5 millilitre. Sorry I can't explain it any better as English is not my first language.
@@WhiteRvssian2023 That's a huge margin of error!
@@CitySteadingBrews Yes it is. Also, I'm not sure of the exact rules that were thought me in science lessons ages ago. I will try to look up the exact rules the I find the time. I was just commenting on what a fellow landsman of mine told you according to your video. I like them a lot as you explain in a practical, accessible and good-natured way.
Hello guys! First of all, big fan of your channel! I have been seeing a tons of videos of you guys and it helped me so much in my mead making. Big thank you!
Tho, I am wondering if anyone could help me here.
I have a bit of a concern.
I made 2x 5 Gallons of traditional mead in 6 gallon carboys on the 1st of August. I put the exact same amount of water, honey and yeast (1 pack) in both of them. The only difference between them is that #1 had more yeast nutrient than #2 (I didn't have any anymore).
Mead #1 Yeast D-47
OG ABV 1.110
Aug 22 1.040 (9.19%)
Aug 25 1.040
Aug 26 Yeast re-pitched
Mead #2 Yeast D-47
OG ABV 1.110
Aug 22 1.074 (4.73%)
Aug 25 1.074
Aug 26 Yeast re-pitched
I racked my meads off the sediments on Aug 22 because a thick layer of sediment was at the bottom of both and degassed both of them. Fews days later I noticed that no fermentation seems to have happened after racking so I checked on the Internet for some answers. Internet said that my fermentation might be stuck. Some people said to re-oxygenate my mead and add one more pack of yeast (D-47) and a tablespoon of yeast nutrient, so I did that. Almost 24h later still no sigh of re-fermentation. The room I use for my fermentations is always between 19 degrees and 20.5 degrees.
Is my mead spoiled now?
Is there any ways to re-start fermentation again?
Someone told me to boil some yeast for 15 min then dump it in my carboys as "organic nutrients". Could it be bread machine yeast?
I did 1 gallons of mead in the past and never had this problem. I know I can reach around 15% ABV in my 1 gallons. Why is this one not working. It's a lot of honey so I would like to save it.
Please help. Cheers!
The temp is a little cool... that 'could' be a factor. Racking too soon as you said to get it off the sediment is another. I never rack until fermentation is complete. That sediment is also your yeast colony. It is likely stuck due to those two things. Adding nutrients at that point won't do anything. New higher tolerance yeast might help, but adding more of the same yeast likely won't. Here's the thing. In a new brew, you don't have any alcohol present and no CO2 so the yeast are in a clean environment to build a colony and get to work. If something interrupts that, you get a stall. If you now add more yeast, they are swimming in CO2 and alcohol and have a MUCH harder time building a colony. Nutrients don't offer them much at this point since there's not enough colony to utilize them and they can actually be worse for fermentation since the nutrient to yeast ratio is much higher. So.... what can you do? Well. Drink it as is, or if it's too sweet, you can add a higher tolerance yeast, you can dilute it a bit and see if it starts again. It's not spoiled though, just stuck.
@@CitySteadingBrews that was the most constructive answer I could get. Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. You guys are awesome ❤
Cheers from Canada! 🇨🇦
@@PokemonMyself happy to help :)
10:00 One is glad to be of service.
Thanks to your channel, iv been wanting to get into making mead for a while. Everyone i found made it seem sooooooo complicated. Your channel seems to have simplified this and now I'm not so intermediated to try it. I work for a zoo and I have a comment to your video. I am a life support tech and I need to use a refractometer almost everyday. They can throw you off from time to time. You have to calibrate them often and they can even give you a different reading if you hold them in your hand to long as your hand heats up the instrument. Also quick question, me and my wife love sweet wine. What yeast do you recommend to help with sweet flavors.
The refractometer is great for brewing beer, waiting for your wort to cool before you can get an accurate reading is a pain.
I have a refractometer but I still prefer using the hydrometer.
My one question is this, as someone who still doesn't understand the hydrometer even after watching your video on them more than once, will a refractometer put me out of my misery in terms of understanding the ABV content of my brews?
It's really frustrating, I've tried a few times to understand the thing but I just don't get it. If I shell out for this refractometer gizmo will I finally be able to take readings or am I simply the type of backwoods brewer that isn't meant to understand such things? Thanks for the feedback.
They both do the same thing in the end. A refractometer will need more calculations and an app for conversion. What is it you have problems with on the hydrometer?
@@CitySteadingBrews yknow I think a big part of my problem is WHEN to use it. For instance I've been under the impression that you first use the hydrometer when you introduce the sugar to the mix (before adding yeast). Is that right? Then you use it again after fermentation to see if the reading has changed? Or do you first use the hydrometer after everything has been added? I mean, measuring the mix with the sugar added tells you the gravity/potential alcohol, right?
I've been at this for a few months and I've just been winging it. Whenever I try and tackle this thing it just sucks all the fun out of it for me.
Your mixing spoon should be renamed the " spoon of unusual proportion".
Derica was correct, you did need a sample. The Brix and the OG scales are not linear, so if you look across from your old OG reading, you're gonna get the wrong number of brix.
Actually… they are linear just one measures density and the other sugar. What is not linear is once the abv begins to rise, the specific gravity will be altered.
@@CitySteadingBrews So will the Brix, and at that point you were measuring mead with alcohol in it. Must admit I'm slightly confuzzled. My refractometer has two scales, Brix and SG Wort. I thought the correction factor was to be used with wort only, I didn't realise you could use it for wine and mead too, as per the maltose versus the sucrose. I bought mine as I've stopped making wine now and am making beer instead. I am in the UK so we may have different scales on ours. What helps us is Brewer's Friend has a spreadsheet which helps you to track and calculate your average correction factor over a few brews.
No adjustment needed until alcohol is present :). So with wort or must just take the reading.
Just a Thought experiment: isnt 1.010 SpGr Equal to 10 Grams of Sugar in a 1 Kg Solution? ... or 5 Gram in 500 gram solution?... So you could technically check both your hydrometer and Refractometer for calibration? or am i missing something?
Yes. And you calibrate a refractometer easily. Hydrometer well you can check accuracy too using distilled water.
Thanks for your videos... Learning much. When making Tea Wine If you don't have your hydrometer yet but you made your wine and about to begin fermentation. Can you store some of your pre fermented for original reading until you get your hydrometer. If you can store it what is the best way... Room Temp? Thanks...
I wouldn’t store at room temp, it will spoil.
Thank you so much for this after making hundreds of gallons of wine a thousands of bottles YOU ROCK _ I can taste your mead:)! really good scientific vid. Let's Have FUN KITTY'S :) Cheers!
You are so welcome!
Just curious and may be a stupid question, has anyone tried to use kool-aid to flavor a kilju
So kind of off topic, but I had a question. I made a dragon fruit mead that started at 1.062 and went down to 0.999 after 2 weeks, but I tasted it and it somehow started to turn to vinegar. I haven’t opened it until now and all I’ve done is gently swirl it to stay wet. Any idea what could have happened? Also started with 12 oz of frozen dragon fruit.
It's not likely to have become vinegar in 2 weeks. More likely it's just very dry, and at .999 it sounds that way. 1.062 isn't very high an OG so it's entirely possible.
I have a question outside of the subject in the video. So, when you bottle, and refrigerate the bottles to put whatever yeast is inside to sleep,so bottles don't blow up... does the alcohol inside still age fine,or is that only possible out of the fridge?
Actually we pretty rarely cold crash these days. Yeast just go dormant if cold, but are still alive. Also, aging is drastically slowed in the fridge, like in this video: ruclips.net/video/V9rLofArIfg/видео.html
@@CitySteadingBrews
Thank you for your response and time 😁
Is refractometer accurate if you readings for what ever reason and just take a final reading.
Once there is alcohol you have to use the adjustments. But you still need og and fg to determine alcohol.
♥☺♥
How do you find your wort correction factor?
I've spent a week trying to figure that out lol.
Well.... honestly I just use the standard it comes with, I think it's 1.0 Here's an article on how to actually do it: www.brewersfriend.com/how-to-determine-your-refractometers-wort-correction-factor/
Sorry to get off topic but have you ever made corn wine or mead..
Iv seen a video where guy did it a couple ways he used fresh sweet corn used the kernels and made wine then the second way he basically made mash like he was going to make pure corn whiskey but just maid wine.
I bet the fresh corn would make a very nice mead.
Never have, but I've heard it doesn't taste very good.
Only thing I drink with corn in it is Bourbon or Rye. When I drink wine, I like it to be sweeter. Corn wine just doesn't sound appealing to me.
@@ghoppr71 like any wine or mead you make it as sweet as you want.
My thoughts like with the fresh corn is it might come out tasting like a corn custard or cream corn.
@@ghoppr71 Had some Mountain dew once,, tasted too much like corn, Logically it is made of corn, but didn't like it for the taste it leaves you.
Hi Brian and Derica, how are you both doing? I have a question about one of my brews and I'm hoping to get your advice. Which is the best platform to ask on? It might get a bit lengthy with the details
Ask here or if you’re part of the vip you can ask there :)
@@CitySteadingBrews Thanks 😊 I started a metheglin on 15th July. It went dry (1.000) it was a little too dry for me so I added a pound of honey. It started fermenting again within a couple of minutes and was quite a bit more active than the original fermentation. (This was on the 7th august) it's still very active today, still has foam on top. My question is, do I test it now or do I leave it? I would have thought that with how active it got, that it would have gone through the pound of honey already. (Yeast is Lalvin EC1118) I'm wondering if I've done something unusual tbh
OG was 1.080 and the new gravity was 1.026
Brother, please, does the refractometer measure the percentage of sugar remaining in the juice after fermentation (if a percentage of sugar remains that has not been converted into alcohol...)?!
It measures brix and specific gravity which are measurements of density and can signify how much sugars are left.
Thank you my friends@@CitySteadingBrews
I would like to see a densito
They aren’t commonly ised in honebrew though.
I have a refractometer for batteries, so could you help me if I can use it to know my wine’s initial and final gravity?
There are online calculators to figure it out. Bit complicated to just do in your head.
Okay, I have to ask. Did you perchance go to SWT in the very crazy early '90s?
Swt?
Just for future reference on not needing a spoon in one to tell from the other, try a quick taste test as the Sugar one should be sweeter ;) it should also feel sticky as well as thicker when you swirl it.
Sweeter yes, but it's not that much sugar to "feel" thicker. Also, I used the spoon to stir it so I just left it in, lol.
Did you ever get one of the 0-80 AVB refractometers?
Aren’t they meant for distilled spirits?
I only have a refractor meter and I want to know how to calculate it using it the abv
That’s what we did in this video.
@@CitySteadingBrews my refractrometer only measures in brix is yours different ? And all my final measure gives me 0 since there is no more sugar more to ferment
You need either an app or the website we gave in the description to convert brix to spgr.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks for the replies!
Looking at refractometers on Amazon (I don't have one) it looks like them only measure to 1.000 specific gravity where a hydrometer measures to .090. This would mean any dry beverages could be wrong if they finished out below 1.000 specific gravity. Is my thinking correct?
They will read much higher than 1.000 with alcohol present.
@@CitySteadingBrews that's where the adjustment comes in. Thanks for helping think through this. 👍
The problem I am having with a hydrometer is my eyesight is not perfect anymore so it is harder to read.
Refractometer looks a pain in the derriere, and more time consuming.... :)