Pet Peeve, 5 vs 6 gallon question from a Canadian

Am I a dummy or I am I not the only one who finds it crazy that what I would call 5 gallons (ie: 23 litres) is the same as what some others would call 6 gallons?

How do I get past this? I mean, I have seen suggestions to make a 5 gallon batch out of an extract (ie Coopers) kit instead of a 6 gallon batch in order to make a better brew... how many litres are we talking here?

I just feel one day I am going to do something stupid and create a bunch of bottle bombs after rushing thorough something, or being too careful to watch everything else in the batch...

(I have no idea why this makes me so mad, but hubby just asked if I was upset with him... oh my...)

Welcome to the world where the US f***s with everyone's standard measurements. I'm an American and I can't stand our "English" system of measurement.

Google gives me 6 gallons when I type "23 liters to gallons", and google is the bomb, so I believe them

I assume it's related to the whole 'British Pint' being 4 oz more than an 'American Pint'?

The US gallon is pretty standard in the brewing world. I know when someone talks about a five-gallon batch it means 19 litres. Pretty much all of our kits up here (beer and wine) are described as 23 litres...or six gallons.

C'est la vie. Upsize your recipes for 6 gallons or just brew 5 gallons. Lots of good reasons to do so--most recipes are for 19 litres, liquid yeasts are supposed to be capable of innoculating 19 litres (probably use a starter anyway), corneys are 19 litres, and you can get 19 litre carboys for secondaries if you use one.

Well that would explain my latest primary to secondary issues... the more I brew the more questions there are to ask, and there are more that I feel I should have asked weeks or months ago... I am guessing now that the carboys I have are 6.5 gallons... and all of a sudden the issues I have had with head retention make sense.

Most of the kits that I have been doing are Canadian pitched and call for 23 litres, so no big deal... maybe I should have used my hydrometer for a bit before deciding it was making my paranoid... ah well...

**** the imperial measurement system. It's far too confusing.

SMOKEU said:

**** the imperial measurement system. It's far too confusing.

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if by confusing you mean stupid, then i agree

I've been confused by the same thing. I started brewing with Coopers (and other) kits, so thought that 5 gallons meant 23 litres. Then I went and ordered a couple of kits from Midwest, didn't realize that American gallons were different, so I ended up with a couple of 23 L batches of slightly watered-down beer. Funny thing was, the Peace Coffee Java Stout (topped up to 23 L instead of 19 L) was most people's favourite beer when we had a tasting of the 16 brews we'd made over the past year.

This isn't a thread about the stupidity of either system. Personally the US system works fine for me. After 36 years of dealing with it, got it down pat.

A constant annoyance and something you have to learn to live with really. I always check all the conversions twice (conversions to metric, that is )

I don't want to be "that guy" but apparently I am compelled to:
Why would you not do the conversion before embarking on a brew session?
Granted our system has some serious issues, but I would never try a recipe in metric without doing the math.

lady_brewer said:

Am I a dummy or I am I not the only one who finds it crazy that what I would call 5 gallons (ie: 23 litres) is the same as what some others would call 6 gallons?

How do I get past this? I mean, I have seen suggestions to make a 5 gallon batch out of an extract (ie Coopers) kit instead of a 6 gallon batch in order to make a better brew... how many litres are we talking here?

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23 liters is 23 liters is 6 gallons. That's it. I have always messed around with recipes when figuring out what volume I want in my fermenter. If I can get away with it and have adequate headspace in the carboy, I will try to have about 5.5G when fermentation starts, in hopes that trub loss will be around 1/2G, so I net 5G finished beer in the end. YMMV. Assuming your fermentables and all other ingredients except water are the same, I wouldn't necessarily consider a 5G batch to be "better" than a 6G batch. Stronger isn't always better, IMHO. Also, the recipe may be calling for 6G into the boil pot, which results in about 5G finished wort into the fermenter anyway, and probably bout 4.5G beer after fermentation is complete.

I just feel one day I am going to do something stupid and create a bunch of bottle bombs after rushing thorough something, or being too careful to watch everything else in the batch...

(I have no idea why this makes me so mad, but hubby just asked if I was upset with him... oh my...)

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Heh - don't worry about bottle bombs unless you crack one open and it shoots beer everywhere, or if one physically explodes on its own. Until then, just relax. It's like watching paint dry, but WAY more fun! :cross:

I just feel one day I am going to do something stupid and create a bunch of bottle bombs after rushing thorough something

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This is unlikely to be a problem. If you primed a 19L batch as if it was a 23L batch, that's only an extra 20%. Well within the tolerance of beer bottles.

I really hate the Stupid measuring system. Back in the '70s there was a push to go metric, but it failed big time. People were actually cutting down metric highway signs, even though they had both sets of numbers. The most ridiculous item I deal with daily: cocoa mix that uses ounces for the serving size and grams for the pitch.

Even though all of the signs on our Interstate highways are in Stupid, the specifications (written in the 1950s) are metric! Our coinage is also metric.

Here is the problem your having in Canada we often get both US and UK gallons as a measurement, probably the same thing in Australia. 6 US gallons is 22.7L and 5 UK gallons is 22.7L If that doesn't make your head hurt then your too smart to be here

jspence1 said:

Here is the problem your having in Canada we often get both US and UK gallons as a measurement, probably the same thing in Australia. 6 US gallons is 22.7L and 5 UK gallons is 22.7L If that doesn't make your head hurt then your too smart to be here

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Exactly right--a U.S. gallon is 3.78 litres and a U.K. gallon is 4.54 litres. Five of the larger equals six of the smaller!

david_42 said:

I really hate the Stupid measuring system. Back in the '70s there was a push to go metric, but it failed big time. People were actually cutting down metric highway signs, even though they had both sets of numbers.

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this failed only in the US, im pretty sure that basically the entire rest of the world uses the metric system, here in Canada we still hear lots of imperial units just because we are so "Americanized" in terms of our culture that is... so it does get confusing/annoying in the home brewing world when everything is different... i absolutely cannot stand how ounces are both a measure of volume and weight but are not proportional to water the the way grams and litres are

I absolutely agree about US measurements being more annoying to work with than metric - but I just can't think in metric no matter how much I try. I cannot think of a liter (litre?) without thinking in terms of quarts and I cannot fathom a kilogram without converting to pounds first. Only kilometers work for me in any real sense and then only because I did a lot of pacing off "kliks" in the Army for navigation. I REALLY want to be a metric kind of guy - the math is so much easier but I think I'm doomed to a life of "base 2" measurements...

Back to topic though - every recipe conversion I have seen shows 19 liters for 5 gallons.

5 US gallons is 18.9371 Liters. 6 gallons is 22.7125 Liters.

I have a theory, utterly unprovable, that the reason most US microbrews tend to be a little stronger than their British equivalents is by the first homebrewers taking a US gallon to be equal to an imperial gallon when following some pale ale or bitter recipe as the original inspiration, then people have liked and stuck with it.

Or am I barking up the wrong tree??

danlad said:

I have a theory, utterly unprovable, that the reason most US microbrews tend to be a little stronger than their British equivalents is by the first homebrewers taking a US gallon to be equal to an imperial gallon when following some pale ale or bitter recipe as the original inspiration, then people have liked and stuck with it.

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i'm not sure but thats a possibility. 1 US Gallon is 0.832674 imperial gallon. if the recipe called for 10 imperial gallons of extract and they put in 10 US gallons that would be slightly over 12 imperial gallons. this would of course raise the OG. but i think the US brewers would check such a thing and adjust their recipe to correct for the discrepancy. and then theres the fact they would use US gallons of water to dilute their extract which of course would be more than their imperial gallon counterparts. this may have a self adjusting quality to it because its the same ratio of water to extract no matter which unit you use just so long as you use the same unit for both.

that or we are all just alcoholics and like the stronger buzz.

Yes, we use Imperial gallons in Canada - that's why our cars get so much better mileage

Ironically, Great Britain has mostly switched to metric, leaving the colonies the only ones using the Imperial system.

As if english measurements weren't confusing enough, we have to deal with Imperial and Avoirdupois measurements being used sometimes.

The day the entire world is using base 10 measurements (metric) will be a happy day for me personally. Now if only time measurements could be base 10 as well!

Dr_Gordon_Freeman said:

The day the entire world is using base 10 measurements (metric) will be a happy day for me personally.

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ESPECIALLY the US... the thing is, is that American scientists use it almost always in their labs because it is simply a better system... but i do understand how it is hard to change, it can take generations... here in Canada I still understand pounds better than kilograms (i have no idea what i weigh in kg but in lbs no problem)

bdleedahl said:

ESPECIALLY the US... the thing is, is that American scientists use it almost always in their labs because it is simply a better system...

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*Sigh* Yeah, and it's not even an 'almost always'... if it's to be published, it's 100% always metrics. I'm about to graduate with my biology degree and I've noticed older folk, including my mom (the old man is an archaeologist, so metrics are common-place), really don't grasp the metric system even if it is vastly superior and easier. The only other countries to use the English system are Liberia and Burma.

However, I really feel the shift to metrics in the US could happen within the next couple decades. Roughly my age-group were taught metrics to be used in tandem with the English system starting in early education, something even my slightly older sisters didn't experience. Using all-metrics would be incredibly nice, considering most people look at me like a freak or stare like a deer in headlights when I describe distances as, "A couple meters away."

Reno_eNVy_446 said:

*Sigh* Yeah, and it's not even an 'almost always'... if it's to be published, it's 100% always metrics. I'm about to graduate with my biology degree and I've noticed older folk, including my mom (the old man is an archaeologist, so metrics are common-place), really don't grasp the metric system even if it is vastly superior and easier. The only other countries to use the English system are Liberia and Burma.

However, I really feel the shift to metrics in the US could happen within the next couple decades. Roughly my age-group were taught metrics to be used in tandem with the English system starting in early education, something even my slightly older sisters didn't experience. Using all-metrics would be incredibly nice, considering most people look at me like a freak or stare like a deer in headlights when I describe distances as, "A couple meters away."

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I went through school during the transition. I'm screwed. I understand outdoor temperatures in Celsius, indoor (like thermostat settings) in Fahrenheit. Pounds, feet, and inches make more sense to me than kilograms, meters, and centimeters - yet a kilometer is much more familiar than a mile. I measure recipes in cups and tablespoons, but drink in milliliters. Thanks Canada.

WillPall said:

Welcome to the world where the US f***s with everyone's standard measurements. I'm an American and I can't stand our "English" system of measurement.

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You can't fool me. I see you're from Alabama. Admit it. You're just mad because you guys spent all that money on km makers to go along with your mile markers and nobody else went along with it.

The United States will NEVER switch to metric. It would take too much work.
As far as it being too hard to figure out what you weigh, etc., if a magic wand was waved and we woke up with everything being metric there would be no confusion. This is my Christmas wish.

I will never understand peoples problem with either. I think ignorance of a system does not make the system stupid. I do not think the change to Metrics in the US will ever happen. People have been saying it would for 30 years. I say use whatever system you like.

If I'm doing English measure, since I live in the U.S., I pretty much know what I'm doing. I also had enough science in my formal education that I'm comfortable with metric.

I would take issue with anyone who began to use gills, pecks, or furlongs per fortnight as units of measure, on grounds of obsolescence or general incomprehension. However, I would also take issue with any opinion that says there is a "natural" or "unnatural" or "stupid" system of measurement. If the system is commonly understood within a culture, and it works- it works. I also reject the argument that the metric system is a "world" standard, because it isn't, and it isn't going to be in our lifetimes.

What I think CAN be defended is to be weights & measures "bimeasural." Two systems exist; why not learn both? At some point in my life, I decided it would be useful for me to become bilingual. So, I added some fluency in Spanish to my English. I was correct, and it has been useful. Same principle.

On an Internet site, the last thing I would do is to assume that "gallons" means "gallons," since people from countries that use the Imperial measures are present.

scratchypants said:

Yes, we use Imperial gallons in Canada - that's why our cars get so much better mileage

Ironically, Great Britain has mostly switched to metric, leaving the colonies the only ones using the Imperial system.

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If only!

I'm just early 30s, was schooled in metric exclusively but everyone of my generation is bilingual in measurements by necessity.

I buy fuel in litres, but measure distance in miles, speed in mph and fuel consumption in mpg.

I measure height in feet and inches, my weight in stones and pounds but goods from the supermarket are in kg.

I drink by the pint (that's a proper British pint, ta) but bottle in 500ml bottles. I measure grain by the kg but hops by the oz.

In football you get the crazy description of someone shooting from a metre outside the 12 yard box.

But it all seems to work, somehow...

I think what set me off was that hubby was doing conversions for his program, and I realised how easily I could mess stuff up if I didn't think it through. Just means something to double check before accidentally making a more BMC type beer

At least with miles vs km and lbs vs kgs they aren't using the same word...

Could be worse, our money could be on something other than a base ten...

Maybe I should just RDWHAHB

Can't we please please please switch to metric? Everyone is "up in arms" to make english the official language but the government still wants to use imperial measures. Insane.

I know I use kg and grams for my beer making. I started(excuse the pun) this with making starters. 100g dme 1000ml water is easy to do especially in a flask marked for you. Bigger starter the ratio is the same.