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I made some Young's Scottish Harvest Heavy from a can. I used cane sugar, which I prefer for colour and taste. My refractometer said 1.048 pre yeast. Ten days on, gravity seems to be static at 1.020-1.025, however I don't entirely trust the refractometer. I was careful with cleaning.

I've tried adding a little more sugar and some yeast to see if it needed kickstarting again but it hasn't made any difference.

Should I just keg and prime and see what it does?
It's a little cloudy but clearing slowly.

Advice please.

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    Not clear if you know this: you cannot read specific gravity straight off the refractometer after your beer has started to ferment - you need to apply some correction factors to convert brix to SG in this situation: For example, see northernbrewer.com/pages/refractometer-calculator
    – Rob
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 14:25
  • What is the estimated FG? It is written on the can sometimes...
    – Philippe
    Commented Oct 21, 2019 at 16:51
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    Rob has a great point. When alcohol is present, you MUST use a conversion calculator. If you haven't done so, be aware that your actual FG is probably closer to 1.012. Put the Brix numbers into the following calculator which is most accurate for final gravities below about 1.014: seanterrill.com/2012/01/06/refractometer-calculator
    – dmtaylor
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 1:11
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    I also recommend getting a hydrometer. It’s just another tool to measure specific gravity, but it’s cheap and generally speaking a lot easier to use.
    – Escoce
    Commented Oct 22, 2019 at 12:12

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thanks to @rob for a great tip. As it happened, I kegged it last night as I have nothing to lose. If it bursts out, it probably wasnt finished. I will read into the charts and correction factors as the manual did not make it clear that the refractometer did not reliably work mid-ferment. Its very cloudy but a spell in the garage should solve that

update - it had actually finished (can says 1.008) Brix to Gravity during and after fermentation converter Original Brix 1.048 Current Brix 1.025 Current Gravity 1.005

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