water measurement?

I get my brew water out of the fridge - it has a measurement setting on the door, so I set it for 4 cups (1 qt) and load up my pyrex quart measurement jar, dump it, and repeat.

Only problem is that the pyrex jar shows I'm filling 1/4 to 1/2 cup too much. Which should I trust, the pyrex or the fridge? I also get different readings from some plastic juice pitchers from walmart.

What do you use for accurate water measurement?

Also, I have two thermometers made by CDN, one digital and one analog. The digital reads about 8 degrees lower than the analog. And ideas?

Generally I would trust your pyrex jar because the fridge must have been calibrated at some time and so might have fallen out of calibration over time, the mark on the jar is not going to change. That being said, make sure the jar you are using is marked for liquid measurements.

You can test the calibration of your thermometers in ice water (should read 32°/0°) and boiling water (should read 212°/100°, depending on your elevation). I've heard some thermometers will be accurate for freezing and boiling but may still be a bit wacky in the mid ranges. You could shoot for something in the middle between them, 4° won't make a huge difference either way.

You simply can't trust Pyrex, plastic pitchers, etc. to be accurate. My Pyrex isn't even close to correct.

Best way is to get a pitcher and calibrate it by weighing it with water. I assume you have an accurate digital kitchen scale; hard to brew without one. Just google to get the density of water, I forget offhand.

bbriscoe said:

I get my brew water out of the fridge - it has a measurement setting on the door, so I set it for 4 cups (1 qt) and load up my pyrex quart measurement jar, dump it, and repeat.

Only problem is that the pyrex jar shows I'm filling 1/4 to 1/2 cup too much. Which should I trust, the pyrex or the fridge? I also get different readings from some plastic juice pitchers from walmart.

What do you use for accurate water measurement?

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Is this for your boil? steep? mash? sparge? In all instances having a highly accurate measuring instrument just isn't necessary. Get it reasonably close. As long as you are getting your expected post boil volume (measured reasonably close) and post boil OG, you are fine.

I agree with helibrewer. It is MUCH more important to brew to your intended OG instead of brewing to a particular volume. Nobody gets the same exact efficiency every brewday, so if you brew to volume you are always going to be off based on your efficiency.

Get the water volume reasonably close using whatever container you have. I just have the 7 gallon mark marked on my mash paddle, then I eyeball it up or down from there, since my starting water volume for a full volume 5-5/5 gallon BIAB batch is typically between 6.8-7.2 gallons. I used gallon milk jugs filled about 1" from the top to measure when I was first graduating my kettle.

From there, I take a temp adjusted OG reading (throw a sample in the freezer for a few minutes and temp generally gets down to around 90-100F pretty quickly) post boil and have the option to either boil a little longer or add a bit more water to adjust. Typically, I'm so close (within +/- 5 thousandths of a point or so) that I don't really care that much and just let it ride.

Hope that helps!

I missed pretty badly on my OG. I was supposed to have 15.2 lbs of grains, but when I weighed the sack from my LHBS, it only came to 14.6 lbs. Is that common?

On the water, I used what a volume calculator said to use 19 qts, then another 14.5 qts for batch sparge - assuming my fridge measurement was correct - however is was heavy by maybe 10% for the initial strike water. I ended up with 6.9 gallons of runnings and boiled for 90 mins at the highest my power boil stove will do. I also added 10oz of cane sugar per the recipe.

I did keep salvaging as much of the runnings as I could get from my cooler and added them to the boil (incl in the 6.9 gal number). But when I transferred to primary, it came to between 5.5 to 5.75 gallons.

My OG should have been 1.086 but I got only 1.076. Is it the water volumes, or the .6 lbs of grain I was shorted?

I use a measuring stick. It's just a wood stick that I marked off at half gallon increments in my boil kettle. I add water and just watch the stick.

My OG should have been 1.086 but I got only 1.076. Is it the water volumes, or the .6 lbs of grain I was shorted?

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The answer is BOTH, but that's what I was trying to say in my last post, if you knew you were short a little grain, you could have just boiled a little longer to compensate. You can strictly measure your temp-adjusted OG and figure out exactly how long extra you need to boil, or you can do like I do and just make an educated guess and get pretty close.....close enough that it doesn't change the malt/hop profile.

If I knew going in that my grains were 0.6 short, I'd just figure that I needed to add 5-6 minutes to the front end of the boil to compensate. Just a guess, but pretty darn close. If I wanted it exact, BeerSmith would tell me my preboil efficiency based off a gravity reading and I could figure out how far off of my expected post-boil OG I would be and compensate with extra boil based on that number, but math is about the last thing on my mind on brewday, so I just go with the educated guess.

Moral of the story again, though. It's all about the OG if you want to hit the recipe. Think in terms of hitting OG, not expected yield, and you'll make better beer.