Tubbster85
Well-Known Member
Anyone out there make their own measuring stick for their brew kettle? CPVC, Wood??
DrHop said:I have a quick question about doing this. Typically I'm assuming you use the measuring stick to look at boiling wort but won't there be quite a bit of contraction when the wort cools.
To put this another way, the volume of boiling wort should be around 5% greater than at room temperature. So if you want 5 gallons of cooled wort then you want around 5.25 gallons of boiling wort. Does anybody correct for this when using this measuring method?
I had a piece of scrap 1x4 in the garage so I cut it down to a 1x1 stick. Then I used an empty gallon milk jug to measure one gallon at a time in my brew pot and marked the stick with a pencil at each gallon. Then I took a hacksaw and cut notches on the stick at each gallon mark so I don't have to worry about the marks fading away.
This is exactly what I did. It works great for collecting wort, and measuring strike/sparge water. 1 side of the stick is marked for my 10 gal kettle the other side for my 5 gal pots.
Tried that for my first kettle... Sucked big time. I now use sight glasses/tubes in kettles/keggles... MUCH better.
BTW, the sight tube I have in my keggle is my own design/manufacture. I sold my first keggle with one in it, so I made another for my new keggle.
I bought a 36inch aluminum yard stick from Home Depot today. It was $3.00. I just flipped it over and marked lines with a permenant marker. Works great! I used it today to measure boil off.
I have a sight glass and don't like it.. keeps getting clogged with hops debris.
I just bought a dowel at a big box store. I mark it with a Sharpie when I've filled the kettle with known volumes. Won't break, won't leak.
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