E.C. Kraus Home Wine and Beer Making Supplies

Refractometers are an invaluable tool for any grape grower, large or small. Refractometers help you to know when its time to pick just by taking a few small grape samples from throughout your vineyard . For more info on refractometers, take a look at another recent blog post, Refractometers Let You Know When To Pick! 

How refractometers actually work is amazing. Refractometers can tell you how much sugar is in a drop of liquid just by how much light bends or refracts as it passes through it. To see refraction in action put a straw in a glass of water. The straw in the water doesn't seem to connect with the straw that's out of the water. That's refraction.

If you were to dissolve some sugar syrup in the water the straw would seem to be even more disconnected, and as you continued to dissolve more and more syrup the "two straws" would seem to get farther and farther apart. This is the whole premise that refractometers works upon.

A sample of grape juice is put between the refractometers prism and light-defusing plate. How much the light bends as it passes through the prism and down the barrel of the refractometer tells you how much sugar is in the sample.

Whether you have two acres or just two vines, visit our website and see the refractometers we have to offer for keeping track of your vineyard this season.