Hydrometer difference

by **Colin Smith** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:36 am

I have a coopers homebrew hydrometer and it reads different to my glass hydrometer I got with my t500 ,,, plastic or glass it's .10 out .... It reads 10.20 glass and 11.30 plastic wtf why does this have to be so hard...?

by **Colin Smith** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:38 am

Sorry 10.30 plastic
:-D

by **Colin Smith** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 1:44 am

While I'm here I brought a t500 before I learnt about heads and tails and runs all that shit.. Is the t500 ok or just a waste of money for a noob like me... I hope I haven't wasted to much money ... In marketing shit ... I have a turbo yeast wash in at moment but going to try a TPW next .. Turbo yeast stinks hardcore ... Want to pour it down the drain..

by **BackyardBrewer** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:20 am

Test the hydrometers in water. The one that gives you a zero is the one that's accurate.

The t500 will still churn out good neutral if you ditch the turbo and ditch the heads and tails. Nothing wrong with te hearts you'll get.

by **crow** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 7:24 am

No you haven't wasted your money. The still you bought is for making neutral spirit and it will do a good job doing that. As far as all the marketing shit yeah you can waste money in that department, some good neutral recipes here to follow and do read and follow cuts and fractions and you will be pretty happy with both the result and the savings from not having to filter or buy ultra expensive shit yeast

by **SBB** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 8:32 am

Colin Smith wrote:Is the t500 ok or just a waste of money for a noob like me... I hope I haven't wasted to much money

The T500 whilst not perfect is ok, The best you can hope for out of it is about 93% abv. A really good reflux still will pull 95%+, Those few percent make a huge difference in taste and quality of your end product.

A few things you can do to get the best result out of it you can are: (some of these have already been mentioned)
Ditch the turbos and use one of the tried and true neutral recipes, use the one you have now for a practice run.
Run the still as slow as you can, This means more water through the condensers which in turn means more reflux, this leads to the highest abv and least taste possible.
Read up on cuts in the novice section and make good tight cuts.
If you have the time or money build a pot still and strip your washes before running them through the T500.

by **Colin Smith** » Wed Apr 03, 2013 5:33 pm

Thanks heaps guys ... :handgestures-thumbupleft: