Attention all uk AG brewers

Hi all

Just a note to AG brewers from the UK.
I have seen a lot of threads on here from what looks to be people from uk by there weight measurements they state in kg, regarding efficiency.
I think its worth pointing out that low measured OG could be something as simple as the fact that our 5 gallon brews are different to the 5 US gallons, in the way that we are brewing just a touch over 6US gallons, So when we measure our gravity based on a calculator that is assuming we are brewing 5 gallons, make sure its indicating 5 UK gallons otherwise your OG will appear low, or try adjusting to the batch size in the calculator to 6 gallons if it measing in US units.

Like I said I might worth a mention to all uk brewers.

cheers

Interesting. So a gallon isn't necessarailly a gallon, Huh? Any idea which online calculators use UK vs US gallons?

None off the top of my head but I use an online calculator called beer formulator and I just up my batch size to 6 gallons and hey presto my readings are bang on.
A british gallon is bigger than an american gallon as I said so if u brew a 5 gallon batch in uk but use an american calculator your og is going to be way off due to higher dilution of water, so give that calculator a go but up the batch size to 6 gallons on there and I bet u see a difference in your og but for the better

william_shakes_beer said:

Interesting. So a gallon isn't necessarailly a gallon, Huh? Any idea which online calculators use UK vs US gallons?

Click to expand...

It might be best if all these numbers got worked out kg and L. Anyway, one thing I can tell you is a US gallon is 3.7 to 3.8 L I think UK gallon sare 4.5L (you'd know). So that might help with your conversions.

Yeah 4.5l is a uk gallon.
For ages I couldnt figure out why I was missing my target og by quite a way, and this is the reason.

As you can see from my signature I'm from the US, and my SG numbers have been consistently correct. I was wondering because I, like you, had assumed a local gallon size. Perhaps the brew software publishers could be made aware of this and clarify their software with a tick off box to select between US and imperial gallons. I for one would be completely lost if they were to convert to liters and kg. I'd have to look at the other half of the scale printed on the brew bucket

I think it would be a good idea for publishers to make a tick box so US And UK brewers can have no confusion.
I have just found another post where the op would appear to this problem.
His numbers are low according to the calculator but I punched his number in and upped the batch to 6 gallons and they are almost right.
This could be the answer to some peoples low efficiency worry, but who would think it was that simple? Took me a year to figure it out lol

yet another advertisement for the metric system!

Nope not an advertisment, just trying to help out fellow brewers, who may have this exact problem

My point about meteric was that it was a different standard and thus allowed a fair comparison. That way instead of saying gallon and thinking 128 us oz or 160 imperial, by refering to L we get some standardization or bassis to work off of. (btw, according to google, 1us oz = 1.04 imperial oz... so that doesn't help either).

Well, what can you say? My fellow Merkins just find it so much harder to multiply by ten than by 12, 16, and 5280, I guess.

OTOH, I'm a computer 'scientist', so for me, round numbers are powers of 2. A base-8 mathematics and measurement system would be much simpler for everyone involved, really.

Huh?

i was hoping that there was some amazing online deal or interesting beer festival happening over here. got all exited over this.
back ot; i cant for the life of me beleive that 5gal american is enough beer to get out of a batch. 5gal uk is much better!