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Hi all, I just mashed a Porter, and it had much more material in it than a typical brew. I'm not worried about that, as my cheese cloth may simply have leaked some excess hops and that's no big deal.

Basically, the reason I'm posting here now is this: at the end of boil, after transferring to the fermenter and stirring (pre-pitching yeast), I took a Brix reading with my refractometer (converted to 1.069), I took a hydrometer reading (read as 1.068) and then finally, after pitching the yeast, I added my RAPT pill... it took 20 minutes before the pill sent a reading via the telemetry, but the reading came in at 1.063.

My previous 3 different brews had come in with more similar readings across my 3 "options" for taking the readings (within 0.002 between the 3 options), so I'm wondering if my specific gravity reading likely changed once the extra material sank to the bottom over the 20 minutes (not sure it would go that quick), AND, if so, which reading actually counts towards measuring the eventual alcohol %? Anyone have insight on this?

Thanks, Doug.

I'm not sure how the RAPT pill works, but particles shouldn't affect measurements from your hydrometer unless they are settling on it and weighing it down. The hydrometer is influenced by what is dissolved in the water, not floaties. I would trust the hydrometer reading as long as you measured it near a temp that it was calibrated at. Having the refractometer so close to the hydrometer adds more evidence that 1.068-1.069 is your real gravity.

Hi, thanks for replying. I forgot I had posted this. My Rapt Pill is still reading lower, so clearly I need to recalibrate it.

As you mentioned, if refractometer and hydrometer are close, I should go by them, as I've been doing so far. Thanks again for the response.