Measuring OG?

I just got done my first batch yesterday and my major issue was figuring out the initial OG. After taking the advice of other members I decided to ferment in my glass carboy but that brought up two new issues. How do I measure to exactly 5 gallons and how do I check the OG? I got around it by first pouring it in the bucket so I could measure and take the OG and then siphoned it into the carboy. It was a pain, is this the only way to do this? Also measuring was hard, there was foam and my little device was hard to read so I'm not really use what my initial OG was. Advice?

Did you put your gravity sample in a container or measure directly from your carboy?
I always take my gravity readings from a sample container then I taste the wort, kill two birds with one stone that way!

You could try a marked "measuring" stick. You could use a long plastic/stainless steel spoon or something like that. Pour a measured amount of water in the carboy or kettle like one gallon, put the stick in and make a mark at the water line. Do this for each graduation you need and viola!!
Of course you need to sanitize the stick if you put it in post-boiled wort or beer!

Just my opions! Good luck!

Pick up a wine thief, or use a turkey baster to snatch some wort from your carboy. Put it into a test jar (or even just the plastic tube the hydrometer comes in) and wait as much time as you need to for the bubbles to go away. Set the test jar on a level surface, and give the hydrometer a little spin as you let go of it to keep it from sticking to the sides.

For measuring 5 gallons, you can just mark the outside of your carboy or ale pail with a marker, no?

For my glass carboys, I measured out five gallons of water with a measuring cup (Some folks claim the graduations on the plastic buckets are not always exact). Then I adhered the edge of my carboy thermometer to the five gallon waterline.
You could use anything that will stick to glass or mark it (fingernail polish?)

Two things when taking an OG. Make sure it's around 60 degrees and if it is foamy, let it sit a while. Or draw your sample from below the surface with a sanitized turkey baster or something. I surrendered and just bought one of those wine thieves. It's awesome.

+1 on the thief. Its a must for carboys. Also make sure that your OG reading is taken from a well mixed wort, if not, the wort (which is heavier than water) sinks to the bottom and your sample, taken from the top is from less dense liquid. This results in a much lower SG reading.

Good Luck!

To mark the carboy, use a one gallon milk jug (or whatever, as long as you know it's one gallon), add a gallon at a time into the carboy and mark it with nail polish on the outside.

Measuring OG is best with a cylindrical sample vessel. After you've topped up your carboy (I'm assuming you're doing partial boil and topping up) and shaken it up to both aerate and mix thoroughly, you can 1) either pour some wort out into a glass carefully then pour in the sample vessel (yes carboys are heavy, so this isn't the "easy" way), 2)siphon some wort from the carboy to the sample vessel, or 3) grab a sample from the carboy with a long turkey baster or a wine thief (this is the easiest way).

Frodo said:

To mark the carboy, use a one gallon milk jug (or whatever, as long as you know it's one gallon), add a gallon at a time into the carboy and mark it with nail polish on the outside.

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I did the gallon jug fill idea with my better bottle, I have stickers for the lines, they are coming off, but I can replace them one by one until I try the nail polish idea.

I feel like an idiot for not thinking of doing the measuring with water first and markin the bottle! I'll get a wine thief and some time of jar to do my tests in for future batches. Thanks.

Would it be okay to let the wort sit while I wait for the sample to be tested? If the wort is still too warm I might pull a sample, let that cool to 60, do the test and adjust if need be. Would it hurt to add water, re-stor and retest until it's perfect?

Your sample does not HAVE to be at 60° there should be a scale with your Hydrometer that gives you the adustments for different temps, for example: @ 62° no change where @65° add 2 to your reading or something like that!

You can keep adding water to the wort to get a more precise OG just remember to mix well before taking the sample!

Keep notes on your gravities and volume adjustment so in future batches you can adjust for efficiency and won't have to do too much adjusting post-boil!