So here's the deal:
For my first brew with my new 6.5g glass carboy, I "measured" 5 gallons of water using my new bottling bucket according to the volume indicators on the outside of the pail. I then racked the water into the 6.5g glass carboy, and marked the 5 gallon line with a sharpie marker.
Fastforward to brew-day:
I did a full boil with a starting amount of 5.5gallons (.5 gallon allowed for evaporation.) I was expecting my post-boil volumes to be less than 5 gallons, and just figured it is better to end up with a little less wort and top off to 5 gallons, than too much wort and have weak beer.
It turned out that my post-boil volume hit almost directly on the 5gallon sharpie mark on my glass carboy.
The first red flag was having an actual O.G. that was higher than my expected O.G. using an extract kit. My O.G. was ~1.070 as opposed to the recipe's expected O.G. of 1.064.
Fastforward to today:
I was browsing the forums and noticed that most pails have incorrectly calibrated markings. WTF!? Why put them there if they're not correct?
Anyways, so I ended up filling 5 x 1gallon jugs of water up and dumping it in my bottling bucket. Turns out, confirming my suspicions, that the bottling buckets measurements were incorrect.
It must be about 4.5 gallons or so. Does anyone know how to figure out how much exactly, with the provided O.G.?
Also, what are the negative effects of not topping off to 5gallons, when making a 5gallon recipe batch? I'm assuming one effect will be less quantity of stronger beer.
Thanks!
For my first brew with my new 6.5g glass carboy, I "measured" 5 gallons of water using my new bottling bucket according to the volume indicators on the outside of the pail. I then racked the water into the 6.5g glass carboy, and marked the 5 gallon line with a sharpie marker.
Fastforward to brew-day:
I did a full boil with a starting amount of 5.5gallons (.5 gallon allowed for evaporation.) I was expecting my post-boil volumes to be less than 5 gallons, and just figured it is better to end up with a little less wort and top off to 5 gallons, than too much wort and have weak beer.
It turned out that my post-boil volume hit almost directly on the 5gallon sharpie mark on my glass carboy.
The first red flag was having an actual O.G. that was higher than my expected O.G. using an extract kit. My O.G. was ~1.070 as opposed to the recipe's expected O.G. of 1.064.
Fastforward to today:
I was browsing the forums and noticed that most pails have incorrectly calibrated markings. WTF!? Why put them there if they're not correct?
Anyways, so I ended up filling 5 x 1gallon jugs of water up and dumping it in my bottling bucket. Turns out, confirming my suspicions, that the bottling buckets measurements were incorrect.
It must be about 4.5 gallons or so. Does anyone know how to figure out how much exactly, with the provided O.G.?
Also, what are the negative effects of not topping off to 5gallons, when making a 5gallon recipe batch? I'm assuming one effect will be less quantity of stronger beer.
Thanks!