Calibrating brew pot...

What's the best way to mark gallons on an alum. brew pot...?

I prefer to measure the depth with a tape or yardstick. It's easy to calculate a conversion factor for most any kettle. I know the volume beneath my false bottom and that constant is easy to figure in. You can fill the kettle with a known volume, measure the depth and back into the factor as a cross check. I don't worry about the ribs in the keggle and just assume it's uniform. Minor difference IMO. I always have a pocket calculator handy, so using the factor is very easy. I'm sure marking the inside of a pot would also work too, but I don't know how easy it would be to read the marks. A lot of guys use a marked off dip stick. Those are easy to make too.

tireater said:

What's the best way to mark gallons on an alum. brew pot...?

Click to expand...

Light sabre.

I was thinking about filling it a gallon at a time...and center punching at each gallon...Inside or outside...?

Just drill a hole to mark every gallon, just scribe in
between for the quart and half gallon

tireater said:

I was thinking about filling it a gallon at a time...and center punching at each gallon...Inside or outside...?

Click to expand...

Both sides is probably best, no?

The correct answer was...
Careful! A center punch can go thru a cheap alum turkey fryer pot on the first hit...
Gracias por nada...

I filled mine a qt. at a time and marked the level with a sharpie. Then I used a dull cold chisel to tap a short line at each qt. and a long line at the gallon points from the inside.

How about a calibrated stick? Pour the water in 1G at a time and once it settles, use a dowel rod and mark each gallon on the rod.

luvmy40 said:

I filled mine a qt. at a time and marked the level with a sharpie. Then I used a dull cold chisel to tap a short line at each qt. and a long line at the gallon points from the inside.

Click to expand...

+1 on this one. Personally i just calibrated my spoon. I notched in at each gallon/ 1/2 gallon line. When i need to see how much is in i just put the spoon in. I only do this for preboil up to the last 10 minutes. The scratches make nice place for microbes so for the carboys, i calibrated with glassetch. Works like a champ

I filled my brewpot a gallon at a time and marked it with a nice shade of pink nail polish. The marks are still there, a couple of years later.

Well tireater, since you have a hole in your pot anyway, you could add a sight tube. I used 2 compression fittings and PET tubing.

Denny's Evil Concoctions said:

Well tireater, since you have a hole in your pot anyway, you could add a sight tube. I used 2 compression fittings and PET tubing.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a plan!

Forgot to add, that if you are using gas to heat it, you might need to add a heat shield to keep the PET from melting.

What one hammer can do....2 hammers can undo...I used a duller punch for the rest of the marks...

Will these measuring marks be made to read hot or cold wort volumes collected? Final cold wort volume before heading to the fermenter marked on a stainless rule with hot wort marks on the opposite side of the same stainless rule.