Using a brix refractometer takes ALL of the guesswork out of testing your honey, maple syrup, ice cream, beer or vegetables for sweetness. Let me walk you through how to pick one out and how to use it.
Yes. It is SO a thing. A Brix refractometer is a gadget (who doesn't love a good gadget??) that have a HUGE range of uses for wine makers, beer makers, beekeepers, vegetable growers. I'm going to walk you through how I use my Brix Refractometer ... for testing the sweetness of the vegetables I grow.
If you shop at Whole Foods you may have noticed that beside the various fruits and vegetables they have a sign with that particular food’s Brix level. What is a Brix level you ask? Basically it's a reading of sugar levels. I say basically because it's much more complicated than that but for the regular food consumer it’s O.K. to think of Brix at its most basic level: a measurement of the quality of a fruit or vegetable based on sugar content.
When I discovered that a Brix refractometer was really inexpensive at only $30, I had to have one so I could test all my vegetables. If you have good soil the Brix level of your vegetables will actually be higher. And the higher the Brix level the more resistant the plants are to pests. Plants with a Brix level of 12 or more found in their leaves are virtually insect proof. Levels of different varieties of the same vegetable will also differ.
To use the refractometer all you have to do is place a couple of drops of the juice from the vegetable onto the lens of the instrument. Then you close the lid and hold it to the light, looking through the lens the same way you'd look through a kaleidoscope.
Right inside you’ll see a line that marks the Brix level of whatever you’re testing. Ignore my horrible shot of this, but it’s really difficult to take a photo through the lens of a Brix refractometer.
All vegetables have levels that they range between. A Brix level of 4 for a tomato is poor and a level of 12 is excellent. Remember, this is measuring not just the sugar, but the nutritional value of the fruit. A higher Brix level also usually means more complexity of taste.
Let me tell you about my beet experiment.
At the beginning of the planting season, I, like many of you, looked up new varieties of plants to grow. I decided I wanted to research what the sweetest beet variety is. You know, the one that will taste the least like dirt. After some research I honed in on the Kestrel beet and bought the seeds. I planted it along with my tried and true varieties like Bulls Blood, Chioggia (Candy Stripe) and Cylindra beets.
They were all grown in the same soil under the same conditions so the only thing to make their Brix levels any different would be the variety of beet.
This fall I compared the Brix levels of all the beets with my Brix refractometer. I decided to compare the Chioggia beets and the Kestrels.
Beets are expected to test somewhere between 6 and 12 on the Brix scale. 6 is a poor rating, 8 is average, 10 is good and 12 is excellent.
The Chioggia beet, which always taste good to me registered a Brix level of 10. So that’s a “good” rating for the beet.
The Kestrel registered a whopping 12 on the Brix scale, which is the highest a beet can be expected to get. It’s excellent.
I've tested my tomatoes, some strawberries, and am kicking myself for not testing my sweet potatoes before and after curing. Sweet potatoes aren't sweet when you dig them out of the ground, they have to be cured for a month and a half to develop their sweet taste.
Since buying my $30 Brix Refractometer I've discovered a bigger and better refractometer. The digital refractometer.
It costs 4 times as much as my version of the refractometer but this one is DIGITAL. And it's more accurate than the other one. Plus it has a much larger range than mine making it useful for both produce and honey.
So remember up near the top of this post where I said I didn't really want you to buy me anything for Christmas and I was just kidding about it?
It appears that yet again, I was lying.
There are a TON of different Brix Refractometers on Amazon, and they aren't all the same so I've chosen the appropriate ones for the appropriate uses for you so you don't get confused. Different Brix Refractometers measure different things and different ranges of Brix. So one that's made for honey for instance, will take measurements from 58-80% Brix. Very high levels of sugar. While a vegetable Brix Refractometer will read a lower range of Brix. From 0-40% for instance. Wine refractometers will measure brix and alcohol content. Beer making ones will measure brix and some other weird beer making measurement that I have no idea about.
Here's your Brix Refractometer guide and links.
Put it on your list for
- Anyone who is really into vegetable gardening or produce (just get a regular Brix Refractometer).
- Anyone who makes homemade wine (but be sure to get a Wine Refractometer)
- A Beekeeper (but be sure to get a Honey Refractometer)
- Anyone who home brews beer (but be sure to get a Beer Refractometer)
- Anyone who makes their own maple syrup would like the Honey Refractometer which also works for testing the thickness of maple syrup.
- Or most interestingly a diabetic. Refractometers just like the one I've linked to can be used to test sugar levels in urine which some think is a better reading than blood sugars for hypoglycemia.
- The fancy digital Brix Refractometer can be used for vegetables, honey, diabetes and syrup.
Didn't notice this little gem of wisdom first time so when I reread this blog today and found this link at the bottom, had to let you know. I learned something valuable and so glad I'm a follower of yours.
I learned that sweet potatoes gain sweetness upon curing - Explains why that big one I received from Blue Apron was not sweet - probably very freshly dug. I also love their food and recipes! Thanks for that also. Have been taste testing Martha Stewart's Marly brand also and hers are very similar. I've eaten some amazing food lately. I so miss my garden.
Ok, I bought three of these (YES, using your portal, I hope?) and gave them for Christmas. I think they are being opened. In fact, I think at least one *has* been opened.
When do the compliments on thoughtful and great gifts start arriving?
How have they been opened already?? Does your family have some strict "open all Christmas presents by December 21st rule? ~ karen!
Family? No, these were given to favorite friends. This is a GREAT gift idea, remember??
One friend said "I don't get many gifts. So I'm going sticking it under the tree to wait for Christmas Day." So... nothing doing there.
One friend got hers last night. Didn't seem concerned about opening it, one way or the other. Darnit. (What is wrong with my friends? Have they no spirit of IMMEDIATE gratification? Who are these people?)
The third friend probably got it in the mail on Saturday and hasn't even opened the box from Amazon, because she just thinks "I'll wait and stick it under the tree." I may have to nudge her because I'm tired of all this patience. Very boring. Don't they realize they are supposed to like the gift and thereby give me some solid gratification???
Hmm. Yeah, that's really the point of it all. I got a present from a friend yesterday and I opened it immediately obviously. Do you want me to call them for you? ~ karen!
Definitely a good thought.
Do you regularly offer such great service or am Ispecial or are you just bored, with a little extra time on your hands between holiday parties and public experiences up there in the Great White North?
By the by... I sent the "frozen yogurt tampon" link to a friend and her Medical Resident husband about a month back. They're still talking about it.
That's the "Gift that Keeps On Giving," my friend!
I am so darned thoughtful!
That might be nice. I like big crowds for dinner. ;)
Going to need a couple of these lovely things and those remote on/off things, too.
Really excellent job on spotting gifts this year.
Ahha! Nevermind.
I keep forgetting that you asked for one of my chickens. I cannot have one of my chickens. They're social creatures. You'd have to take two. ~ karen!
Just thought I would mention that there was a Brix related question on Jeopardy this past week and I was able to smugly yell "what is sweetness" at the TV. Love love love doing that!
Ack, your site!!!!! I hate change. But I'll get over it.
When our son was first diagnosed with epilepsy this January, I immediately emailed my naturopathic buddy and begged for advice on diet changes. Fast forward to EKG's, MRI's, and good old-fashioned brain doctors, and I completely blew off his advice for an immediate quick fix, aka, drugs. I'm cringing as I type that. Anyway, he told me to buy one of these and he'd walk me through how to use it. I did not, (see prescription drug sentence above), but I'm super curious as to how we would have proceeded, had I listened to his advice.
Yes I know. I anticipated that. I hate change too. But since I've lived with this design for the past 6 months or so while getting it all ready I'm not quite as freaked out as you all will be. I wonder what he would have used the Brix for in terms of epilepsy? ~ karen!
You're like Penny, from Inspector Gadget :) with her magic tablet, that was not yet invented or even named tablet.
What we really need is a refractometer that will test the sweetness of human beings. That could be very handy for dating purposes (a guy asks you out...you poke 'em and get his brix reading..anything above an 8 is a possibility!)
So what I want to know is do you really wear a white shirt into the garden to harvest beets? I would think high sugar beets would stain worse than low sugar beets.
Shoot! I knew I shouldn't have clicked on this tonight! Let's put the gadget and your interesting info aside for a minute .... I love your ring, Karen! Clicked on that website ..... boy, he has some lovely stuff. Just when I paid my Visa bill, another temptation presents itself.
OMG I NEED THIS! I am a diabetic vegetable gardening soon to be bee-keeping human! I AM ALL THE THINGS YOU TALKED ABOUT IN THIS POST. I never knew such an amazing thing existed. Adding the fancy one to my amazon wish list right meow.
Thank for sharing this Karen!
We sold our orchards in the eighties, but back then, they were Brixing our apples at the juice plant ( now closed, long sad story about North American agriculture, mega companies and Chinese imports) and paying us on the Brix score.
As a diabetic, I can tell you that urine testing for glucose isn't that useful. Blood testing tells you what your levels are right now. Urine tests tell you what they were a while ago. Since when you test, you generally need to know where you're at currently, it makes a lot more sense to test your blood. I haven't bothered with a pee test in years, except for ketones, which is a whole other thing. But if you do want to test your urine, there are ways already designed for diabetics to do that (so maybe don't rush out to buy refractometers for the diabetics on your Christmas list) :) Interesting idea, though...
HI Aspasia! If you click on the link I provided you'll see it's been researched as a superior way for testing hypoglycaemia. They talk about all the sciencey stuff. I'm just reiterating. That's why I included the link. ~ karen!
I'm sorry, Karen, but that link does not seem like a reliable source of information at all. "Sciencey" is about right. When an article criticizes "mainstream" information, it's a red flag for me (among other things in that particular article). When the CDA and my endocrinologist recommend a refractometer as a better way to test my hypos, I'll listen to them. But diabetes is an incredibly complex illness and people need to be careful about the information sources they trust. I think refractometers are awesome gadgets for so many other purposes--just not for diabetes care.
WOW You are my brother 's keeper. Genius of the astronomically inquisitive kind. I now know what to get him for Christmas and the Pickle Prize. Even better than taking the Pledge for being prepared is ordering the perfect present in time to receive it. Wrapping a small box with a printout picture of the "actual present" is just so expected - so will be very happy to surprise him with an actual, feel-able, gift!
Hi Mary W. That IS the genius of the Christmas Pledge! ;) ~ karen!
Karen have you tried yellow beets? My neighbour mentioned them to me so I tried them the next year and its been 3 years now. They taste sweeter and as my hubby says they don't smell like dirt when you cook them (He refuses to let me cook the red beets in the house). lol Also they don't leave red stains all over your stove, counter etc. when you cook them. Would love to know what the refractometer count would be. Hmm Christmas.
I have! They're called golden beets and if you roast them with red beets you'll end up with a beautiful tie dyed beets. Even your husband will love them. :) ~ karen!
Nice ring,,,is there a back story?
Nope, no back story other than I saw it on Etsy and loved it. Etsy seller from Israel who has beautiful stuff. ~ karen!
That etsy store has some very lovely things! My Christmas list may have just gotten a lot longer.
huh, who would've thunk. i feel smarter now. so thanks for that.