Calculating Volume of Wort

Hi,

I would like to know the differents ways to calculate the volume of the wort in your pot after grain absorbtion and/or after boiling.

Example, let's say I want to BIAB a batch and should target a 7.4 gal Pre-boil volume.

I estimate the grain absorbsion to be (example) 1.1 gal overall. So I'm starting with 8.5 strike volume for the mash. How do you determine if you really have 7.4 gal of wort in your pot before starting the boil (after the mash)?

I'm thinking of marking a stirring spoon on every 0.5 gal, it will give me a rough idea of the volume of the wort in the pot ? Is there a better way to do it ?

Thank you.

You can make a stick like you mentioned. You could also have a sight glass installed on your pot.

A marked stick will work. This BIAB calc. inputs kettle dia. and gives you wort volumes measured from the top of the kettle.

http://www.simplebiabcalculator.com/

Thank you.

I use the measuring stick method. I have mine marked in 1 gallon increments and just guess on the fractions of a gallon.

I filled my kettle up with measured water volumes on the first day and wrote the numbers at the correct spot on the outside of the kettle with permanent marker.

Imagine how cool brewing will be once they've perfected transparent metal.

LandoLincoln said:

Imagine how cool brewing will be once they've perfected transparent metal.

Click to expand...

Seethruminum

Patent it quickly!

Its already available. PYREX

LandoLincoln said:

You can make a stick like you mentioned. You could also have a sight glass installed on your pot.

Click to expand...

I opted for an hybrid of both method you mentionned, I marked an unused racking tube, put it in wort and just put the thumbs on the other end to keep wort level in the tube. I can take a reading this way.

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Transparent aluminum. Scotty helped a 20th century scientist "discover" it in "Star Trek The Voyage Home".

You still need to make the volume marks!

If you're pot is fairly cylindrical youc an use the volume of a cylinder:

Gallons = (pi*r^2*h) / 231

so for every inch on a stick will be about:

(pi*r^2)/231 gallons

My stout kettle has a rather significantly domed bottom for whirlpooling so I use the dump & measure technique.

Also a possibly very accurate method would be to weigh your empty kettle, then weigh the kettle as it fiils. You can do the unit conversion based on the SG, converting the gr/ml to lbs per gallon. An easy number crunching website is Wolframalpha.

I may do this tonight with my two carboys of nearly fully fermented APA.