If a carboy's made in italy, are they imperial gallons or US gallons?

So, yeah, that. I bought a few glass carboys off Craigslist circa 1974. Made in Italy, and I want to know if they're 6.5 US gallons or 6.5 UK gallons. If you don't know, Imperial gallons are bigger.

So I'm thinking since everyone but the US uses imperial gallons, that the made in Italy ones are in imperial gallons. Am I wrong?

Cheers.

Best approach would be to fill a jug with a gallon of water and use it to fill and measure the total by counting the number of 1 gallon jugs and whatever fractional part it requires to fill it to about 2 inches from the top. Either way it should hold a 5 gallon batch with plenty of headspace thus reducing the possible need for a blow off tube for vigorous fermentations. Just my .02 and that way you will have empirical data to support your quantities.
Wheelchair Bob

It's on my list of things to do, but I figure my fills will be off my a bit since I use a 4 liter container and I'll never get an exact measurement. But even if it's 6.5 US gallons, it'll be plenty for a 5 gallon batch.

The Italian "6.5 Gallon" glass carboys that look like this

are definitely US Gallons.

I have four of them and there's no way you could fit ~7.8 US Gallons in them...

Cheers!

Yes, they are US Gallons. But wow....what a good question. Never crossed my mind. Had me scared for a couple of seconds. LOL

I'm Canadian and everything here is imperial or metric, so often I have to do the math before following instructions. Either way, If I make 20 Liter batches (5 gallons?), 6.5 gallons will provide plenty of head space (about 5.5 liters worth)


Thanks day_trippr, The images are exactly what I bought. Though now that I have them home I'm not sure it was such a great purchase. Buddy had white paint drops on the outside of the glass on one of them. Not really an issue, especially once I scrub off, but it kinda weirds me out that the containers used to make food (or drink), were stored somewhere where things were getting painted.

Husher said:

I want to know if they're 6.5 US gallons or 6.5 UK gallons.

Click to expand...

I have two of these Italian carboys, and I measured them with US half-gallon (2 qt) juice jars. They fit >7 US gallons. Cannot say exactly how much more, as I never put more water... probably a quart.

Wouldn't things be much easier if everything was in metric. A litre is a litre no matter where you are.