How to calibrate gallons capacity of equipment?

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grathan

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I was trying to mark my equipment to get an idea of how much liquid they might contain at certain times. I figured I could just use an empty gallon milk jug filled to almost the top. Doing this I find that a 6.5 gallon carboy holds 7 gallons? can anyone confirm this?

When filled my keggle(bud), I find that the center crease to be 8 gallons? Can anyone confirm this?

But when I filled my True Brew bucket with mash runnings which I thought the markings on the side said it to be 6 gallons, I pour this into the keggle and get 7 gallons? Can anyone confirm the gallon markings on the True Brew bucket?
 
The easiest way would be to mark as you fill it, 1G at a time. Another way to do this would be using a dip stick, and a ruler.

The formula for volume of a cylinder is Pi * r^2 * H
There are approximately 231 cubic inches in 1G of water

Using this information, you can determine what height is 1G, 2G, 3G etc...

There is also a handy calculator here:
http://merrycuss.com/calc/kettle_volume.html
 
grathan said:
I was trying to mark my equipment to get an idea of how much liquid they might contain at certain times. I figured I could just use an empty gallon milk jug filled to almost the top. Doing this I find that a 6.5 gallon carboy holds 7 gallons? can anyone confirm this?

When filled my keggle(bud), I find that the center crease to be 8 gallons? Can anyone confirm this?

But when I filled my True Brew bucket with mash runnings which I thought the markings on the side said it to be 6 gallons, I pour this into the keggle and get 7 gallons? Can anyone confirm the gallon markings on the True Brew bucket?
Click to expand...

A gallon milk jug is not really accurate. I would use a graduated beaker or some other more accurate device. If you have a scale you could fill your gallon container, after zeroing out for the weight of the jug to 3 kg with distilled water, that would be 3 liters, then use that as your measuring line. Volume of water unfortunately changes with temperature more than you'd think. If you are using gallons, you could use 8.345 lbs as your weight. Mark the line and then fill to that line every time, it'll get you closer.
 
If you want to be anal about it, weight is the only way to go. Volume changes with temperature but weight remains constant.
 
EvilDeadAsh said:
The easiest way would be to mark as you fill it, 1G at a time. Another way to do this would be using a dip stick, and a ruler.

The formula for volume of a cylinder is Pi * r^2 * H
There are approximately 231 cubic inches in 1G of water

Using this information, you can determine what height is 1G, 2G, 3G etc...

There is also a handy calculator here:
http://merrycuss.com/calc/kettle_volume.html
Click to expand...
This method will work with kettles, but the OP is using a keggle. A converted keg doesn't have straight sides, so the formula won't apply.
The dipstick sounds like the best option.
 
Yea just make a dipstick out of something that will be obvious when wet, like a wooden dowel.

Put 1 gallon in, stick dowel in, find where the water line on the stick is..mark it, repeat until you have your markings.

For my 8 gal kettle for example, its every 4cm for a gallon. Once i took the first 4 and realized this, marking the final 4 only took a few seconds with a ruler.

Works great, i can easily see how much wort i have in my pot pre and post boil.
 
I used a measuring cup and my plastic tea pitcher, marking the sides with a Sharpie at half gallon and full gallon measurement. Then used that to mark my plastic carboy at various measurements.

I like the dowel idea for the brew pot. What kind of dowel do you use and what do you use to mark it with?
 
I just used a piece of scrap wood I had lying around. Stick in after after every gallon & then mark with a magic marker at each gallon wet mark...
 
I say take a cylindrical container, fill it to any point at random with water, keep the water at exactly 70 dF. Then start dissolving sugar into the water grain by grain (measure the weight of each grain and keep copious notes) once you get a parcipatate then you know you've reached the saturation limit.

Now you know how much sugar it took to reach that limit, so you can figure out the volume of water you have. From there you can use some ratios to figure out where exactly one gallon is.

Easy peasy.
 
But i do like the weight option... I'll be using that to mark a new carboy, thanks for the tip
 

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