zaprozdower

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I was wondering if anyone roughly knows the conversion of cups of grain to oz? I've been using portions of my specialty malts and would like to get more accurate amounts into my boil. Clearly a scale is a better way to do that, but money is low right now

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brewmasterpa

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thats tough. differenct grains can fill a cup differently. depends on mill size, grain type. hard to say, you really need a scale to be accurate.

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IrregularPulse

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yep, can't compare measuring weight to volume. Grand size and crush will give you variable results.
Side Note - When a recipe calls for oz it is weight not volume.
SideNote 2 - Grains should not be making it into any boil!

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bradsul

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You should be able to pick up a reasonably accurate scale at any dollar store. Considering what a batch of beer costs to make I would think 2 or 3 dollars for a scale wouldn't be too extravagant.

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Brewmasters Warehouse

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I agree with bradsul, that you should get a cheapo scale. Grains vary too much to not weigh it out. We store the grains in bins, and there is a large variance between different types of grains as to how much of the bin is filled with a new bag. If your only doing a couple of ounces then it would not translate into a huge difference in your beer, but multiple that little difference for each specialty grain, and you could end up with a beer that is not close to what you wanted to brew.

Ed

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pjj2ba

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You could always make a ghetto balance out of a dowel and then from each end, via some strings, attach platters that will each hold two idetical measuring cups. Tie a string to the middle and find then lift and adjust it's position as neccassary to get it level. Now, a pint is a pound the world round. So fill one cup with water equal to the weight you want then add grain to the other side. Lift your ghetto rig and adjust the grains as needed to balance it. Actually this might work better if you used a 1"X4" (the longer the better) and set it up seesaw fashion. This would give you both hands free.

If you are doing all grain, then you really should buy a scale.

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david_42

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I paid all of $7 for my scale new. It's a cheap plastic spring scale that only goes to 500 grams, but that's plenty 95% of the time.

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giligson

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Most second hand or thrift stores will have at least one kitchen scales.

If you are really hard up build it like this:

Make your own mass balance scale

The volume of grain will vary significantly and you will likely be +/- 15% error if you try to use volume equivalency.