Carboy calibration

I just found out today that some vendors carry stickers to calibrate the volume in your carboy.

I thought I would pass on how I solved this myself prior to finding this out.

I poured an accurate 1 gallon measurement of water into my carboy and marked the level on the glass with an extra fine sharpy marker. When I had completed the total volume as described above I broke out the Dremel tool and an abrasive bit and permanently marked the lines and corresponding gallons.

I was a little worried about the carboy being brittle so I practiced on some soda bottles first.

That sounds like more work than I want to put into it I only use carboys for secondaries and I'm not too terribly worried about volume at that point. But that's just my system.

A cool trick I came up with (somewhat related) is to fill my BK one gallon at a time and mark it on a yardstick, so I can put the yardstick in my BK and know the volume during the boil.

You can get glass etching kits in craft stores which effectively do the same thing but without compromising the integrity of the carboy.

-a.

ajf said:

You can get glass etching kits in craft stores which effectively do the same thing but without compromising the integrity of the carboy.

-a.

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This is what I did after seeing someone on here do the same. Its just an acid based etcher. I tape off a mark at each half gallon up the entire carboy, then I got a pack of stencils at the same craft store and use those for the gallon marks. Note if you do this, you don't need a big bottle. I thought I'd be going through quite a bit with 4-5 carboys to do, but a little goes a long way, and you can scrape the excess off after etching and reuse it for later, so now I've got a whole bottle laying around and I'm trying to come up with new things to etch. Thinking about maybe doing some bottles

erikpete18 said:

so now I've got a whole bottle laying around and I'm trying to come up with new things to etch. Thinking about maybe doing some bottles

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How about some custom pint glasses. Who doesn't want their name all over their beer glass?

Whiteout works really well. I've had a carboy marked with it for over a year now and it's hardly worn off.

Super easy; very cheap; very fast.

I put some tape at appropriate levels.

keim said:

i put some tape at appropriate levels.

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+1

Duck tape is waterproof. Not pretty, but oh so manly. I would like to get around to doing the etching. But I've got a lot more stuff to worry about first. Like learning how to brew AG correctly.

LandoLincoln said:

Duck tape is waterproof. Not pretty, but oh so manly. I would like to get around to doing the etching. But I've got a lot more stuff to worry about first. Like learning how to brew AG correctly.

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Ditto, Duck tape is the way to go, doesn't come off...even with washings.

I hope you did not use a one gallon milk container for you gallon mesuremeant! If you did, you wiil be 3/4 to a cup short on each gallon measure....the gallon jug is filled and measured with cold milk......so by using a milk jug bought at the store to measue 5 gallons of water/beer......you will be short 5 cups or 1 qt and 1/2 pint................for five gallons...cheers

mnpaddler said:

I hope you did not use a one gallon milk container for you gallon mesuremeant! If you did, you wiil be 3/4 to a cup short on each gallon measure....the gallon jug is filled and measured with cold milk......so by using a milk jug bought at the store to measue 5 gallons of water/beer......you will be short 5 cups or 1 qt and 1/2 pint................for five gallons...cheers

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Nope.... I used a measuring cup to get 1/2 and 1 gallon volumes marked on a jug and used the jug accordingly to make my marks on the carboy.

and the choice of colors and patterns for duct tape now a days make it perfect to customize that bottle :fro:

did you use a dry or liquid measuring cup...I found out that there is a difference!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mnpaddler said:

I hope you did not use a one gallon milk container for you gallon mesuremeant! If you did, you wiil be 3/4 to a cup short on each gallon measure....the gallon jug is filled and measured with cold milk......so by using a milk jug bought at the store to measue 5 gallons of water/beer......you will be short 5 cups or 1 qt and 1/2 pint................for five gallons...cheers

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I didn't know this!! Guess you learn something new everyday.

I did mine by weight with RO water in a 1 gallon jug, marked it, and use that for measuring everything. I scuffed my lines with a diamond file then filled them in with sharpie marker.
Be careful scoring glass. If you've ever done any glass work, you'll know that glass breaks along a score quite easily and predictably.

mnpaddler said:

I hope you did not use a one gallon milk container for you gallon mesuremeant! If you did, you wiil be 3/4 to a cup short on each gallon measure....the gallon jug is filled and measured with cold milk......so by using a milk jug bought at the store to measue 5 gallons of water/beer......you will be short 5 cups or 1 qt and 1/2 pint................for five gallons...cheers

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How do you figure? A gallon is a gallon is a gallon. It's a measure of volume not weight and milk is sold by volume. Since milk is more dense than water, the same weight of milk would fit in a smaller volume, but one gallon of milk = one gallon of water or any other liquid.

pelipen said:

How do you figure? A gallon is a gallon is a gallon. It's a measure of volume not weight and milk is sold by volume. Since milk is more dense than water, the same weight of milk would fit in a smaller volume, but one gallon of milk = one gallon of water or any other liquid.

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Regardless a milk jug is going to inaccurate, they get close to a gallon but are never 100%. I do agree that 1 gallon of cold liquid will take less volume than that same amount once it has warmed to room temp.