Do you actually measure that much?

[rockydog101]

Hi all,

I see on some recipes things like 3.2 pounds of Xxx grain, or 0.62 ounces of this hops. Or odd measure,wants like 7.3 pounds of a liquid malt extract. Do yall actually measure that precise? Or are there websites where you can put in a specialty order like that and get it shopped? And how do you get odd measurements for liquid malts? Just measure it out and save the rest of a can for later?

 

[SeraW]

While I've never used LME, I think that a good kitchen scale (or two, one for larger amounts and one for small resolutions like your .62oz hops example) is a good cooking practice and therefore easy to keep around for brewing. As long as your scale could handle a few pounds to a .1 resolution, you put a bowl on it, tare it out (zero it), add what you need, and use a rubber spatula to scrape it all out of the bowl. For hops, same idea, smaller bowl, then seal up the bag as best as you can.

That said, for grain, I get mine at the LHBS and they measure to .25 lbs, so I would probably just round it to nearest and say what the hey to the results.

As an afterthought, someone who crafted a recipe in metric and then converted it would get awkward numbers in US Customary or Imperial.

 

[Hello]

^ this and also scaling a recipe will do this as well. Not every time, but it's hugely possible. You'll get odd hop and grain amounts. I usually round up or down.

 

[flars]

Like SeraW has said, these recipes may have been converted from metric measurements.
You'll also see odd amounts with recipes that have been converted from all grain or extract. I'll use a recipe builder, like the one Brewers Friend offers, to input the numbers to determine in I should round up or round down, the fermentables and hops, to get the expected results.

 

[JKaranka]

I use two scales, a kitchen one for grains that has a precision of +/- 50 grams, and an electronic for hops and oddities that has a precision of +/- 0.1 grams. I wouldn't get massively into small differences in amounts (half a pound more or less in the total grist) but I do measure everything as well as I can. I usually chuck in a little handful extra as it's better to have a bit too much than not enough.

 

[LLBeanJ]

I don't use/haven't used LME or DME in my brewing, but I do round grain amounts to the nearest ounce. My LHBS is self-serve in the grain room and the scales read to the hundredth of a pound, so I weigh out exactly what I need and nothing more (ex: 3 oz = .19 lb). I have a kitchen scale for hops and typically round up my hop additions the nearest 1/20th of an ounce.

 

[CGish]

For dried malt extract, the exact measurements are fairly easy since DME stores well. Liquid is a little harder, but my LHBS sells LME in bulk so you could get an exact amount that way. Hops are cheaper if you buy them in bulk. A accurate small scale is important.

If you reach the point where you start all grain instead of extract or partial mash, you can buy base and common grains in larger amounts. You would need a good scale at that point.

So, yes, I think a lot of brewers do measure precisely.

However, if you do not want to do so you can:
(1) adjust the recipe to whole measurements (you will get a slightly different beer),
(2) use Beersmith or other brewing software to adjust the size of a recipe until at least one of the ingredients - like the LME - is a whole number (I would find the continually varying batch sizes this produces very annoying and counter-productive), or
(3) buy kits that have all the ingredients measured out and packaged for you (this limits you to pre-packaged recipes - but there are a lot of kits available).

You have to decide how much effort and energy you want to put into this hobby. You can brew good beer with a solid process and whole, round measurement numbers, but the beers will be a little different from the recipes you base those beers on.

Good Luck,
Cody

Edit - The advice above about converted and scaled recipes is good. There is little change in altering micro amounts to make measuring easier.

 

[sportpak]

I don't sweat the weight of grains too much. My LBS keeps it within an ounce usually. When I figure hop additions I keep it in grams. It's a fairly fine adjustment that makes it easy to dial in IBU levels. Gram scales are cheap too.

 

[unionrdr]

I use my digital scale that measures down to .1 accuracy. Using BS2, I do get odd amounts when I'm building a recipe to a particular style. But Beersmith scales in even amounts to the right of the decimal point as well. This makes weighing amounts easier.

 

[JayDubWill]

The only thing I measure down to a quarter ounce is hops, malts get rounded to nearest half pound. Why make it hard on yourself and your brewshop?

 

[beergolf]

Depends on the ingredient.. Hops get measured to the fraction of an ounce. Base grains get rounded to the nearest 1/4 lb since nobody can tell the difference between 10lb 4oz and 10 lb 4.5 oz. .. The variation between crops is not that close. Specialty grains get to the nearest ounce.

 

[kh54s10]

I make my own recipes and mill my grains so I can make the amounts in any increments I want. My scale will measure pounds, ounces and grams to .1 so I use what I need when building my recipe. Hops are weighed accurately, grains not so much.

 

[beergolf]

To put it all in perspective. Here is 1/10 oz of grains. Do we really need to get that precise. Can anyone measure their final volume down to the oz?

 

[chickypad]

Depends on the ingredient.. Hops get measured to the fraction of an ounce. Base grains get rounded to the nearest 1/4 lb since nobody can tell the difference between 10lb 4oz and 10 lb 4.5 oz. .. The variation between crops is not that close. Specialty grains get to the nearest ounce.

This is pretty much what I do, but it also depends on your batch size - I tend to measure a more accurately for my 3 gal than my 10 gal batches. If you're doing 1 gal batches you'd better get a precision scale - a quarter ounce difference on hops and a half lb on grains isn't going to cut it.

 

[dkennedy]

That's a good point. I run ~5 gallon batches, when building my 'resolution' is usually 1/4 lb for base malt, ounces for specialty malt, 1/4 ounce for hops.

 

[JohnSand]

I think the hardest thing to measure is LME. When using less than a full can (3.3 lbs) I weigh the full can without the lid first. The pour it out guess-timating until I'm close, weighing as necessary. If you're not pouring it right into the pot, use some hot water to dissolve any that sticks to the bowl.

 

[Calypso]

No. The smallest increment I'll use is 2 oz for really intense specialty malts. Otherwise I go with 8 oz increments.

 

[rockydog101]

I sincerely appreciate the replies and advice. I will invest in good scale for measuring out the more minute things and also for the other stuff. I love this hobby!!!!

 

[masonsjax]

Some guys are obsessed with measuring. *shrug*

 

[Michigan_Wolfman]

I think Charlie Papazian said it best......"Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew." A little more or a little less of any ingredient isn't going to make or break an already good brew.

 

[unionrdr]

I just like to be precise as much as I can, what with BS2 having that ability. Not to mention, with repeatability. Some recipes do require measuring hops down to a tenth of an ounce, or even hundredths. But my scale only goes down to tenths, so I round off one way or the other.

 

[DromJohn]

I have a scale that measures to the ounce, so my grains, DME and adjuncts are to the ounce. It's the same scale with the same effort, so I don't measure base and specialty malts differently.

For hops, I eyeball. I divide a hop packet to about equal amounts for 1/2 or 1/4 (and once 1/3) proportions. While it would be just one more step to go to 1/8 or 1/6, I haven't because I prefer have smaller denominators for my leftovers.

As to LME, I can handle 6 lbs of grain (prefer 5 lb). Since I prefer LME to DME (mess factor) I use LME for most brews, and recently in large quantities. Currently I am using Northern Brewer as my main OHBS. NB offers 6 lb and 3.15 lb syrup. So I calculate which combination of full bottles leaves me the most grain 6 lbs or under. I think once, the break was awkward enough that I got the grain bill to 6 lbs with some DME.

 

[MindenMan]

My scale has 1/8 oz, and 2 gram resolution. I weigh my grains in ounces/pounds, and I weigh my hops in grams. My batches are usually 5 gallons, but if I make a small batch my scale is good to go there too.

 

[McKnuckle]

I weigh my grain and water in kilograms, with resolution down to a gram.

I weigh my hops and salts in grams, with resolution down to 0.1 gram.

I brew a lot of 2-3 gallon batches, where small differences are important. Plus I like the scientific nature of being precise.

 

[SnakeRidge]

I work in a lab, so I'm measuring milligrams all day. At, home, I weigh grains to the 1-2 oz and hops to the 0.25oz. I purposefully create my recipes to use a whole ounce of whatever hops (throughout the boil) because I hate having leftovers. I'm more precise with the bittering hops, less so with the late boil hop additions. With grain, I'm less precise with the base malts and more precise with things like Roast Barley, and C-120 for example where a couple ounces could have a degree of difference in the final product. (My red IPA where I use 1oz Carafa III is a good example of important high precision)

 

[vincentAlpha]

Grain to a few grams ( or a bag if using base malt, 1 bag=2kg) and hops to the gram when measuring hops. I don't get super paranoid about it as my scale goes to 1g precision but probably only accurate to a few grams unless I mess with it or really take my time. Need to invest in a better one for doing brewing salt measurements since measuring 1-2g on a 1g precision scale doesn't really work well.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

I think Charlie Papazian said it best......"Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew." A little more or a little less of any ingredient isn't going to make or break an already good brew.

There is a shorter version of that...

 

[Gavin C]

5.5 gallon batches here.

Grains to the ounce but scale goes to 0.1oz resolution. I've never used less than a 2oz increment for a grain, so it's a non-issue.

Hops to the gram but I've never needed any more accuracy than 1/4 ounce (7g approx). Easy to eyeball a 1/4oz if you don't have a scale.

For 1 gallon batches I suppose weighing grains to a fraction of an ounce would be of use I suppose.

Hops would still need only gram resolution.

I can't imagine ever needing to measure a 1/100th of an ounce of a hop. That would be a fraction of a single pellet.

For required salt additions, measuring fractions of grams are the norm, given a 5 gallon batch size.

 

[brewcat]

Using a scale is handy in brewing and cooking. I use mine all the time.

 

[JohnSand]

Another brewer that measures to the ounce for grain, gram for hops.

 

[drainbamage]

I don't have a kitchen scale (been meaning to get one, actually), but I try to make my recipes such that I don't need it. I do PM, so I'll try to work with even 1 lb. intervals of DME, and then the LHBS has a scale where I can measure finer amounts for the mashing grains. I try to stick with ounces on that.

As for hops, I try to keep things within 1/4 oz. and eyeball it. I don't really need to be so anal tweaking my IIPA recipe that I add exactly 0.43 oz. of hops at 15 minutes.

 

[asterix404]

No. Really, no. I have been doing this for years and the only recipe I have repeated is a heff. Hops are a bit different but it is easier to buy hops in ounces and match AA to get IBUs close than to toss hops. I hate tossing anything. As for grain, I stick to half pounds or pound bags, if I still have any around. The amount of sugar or flavor added to a recipe from an extra half pound of grain is minimal, in most cases. Grains like honey or crystal I use sparingly, if ever but on those I am careful. Roasted rye? Love it, don't care if it is 2 pounds in the stout or 3. You will get awesome beer.

Converting is a bit tricky but basically, see what they are going for and try to reproduce that with what you have around.

This is the curse of tech. You can get down to .05 grams so why shouldn't you? Well, because the difference between 23g and 23.05 grams is non-existent. Beersmith and the like allow people to go crazy. At the end of the day, I might be able to reproduce a beer, like the heff, but I don't care because I don't have temperature controls anyway, so it is fairly moot.

 

[ol-hazza]

Using metric and using mainly recipes that aren't means that I convert 2 lbs to the kg, 1 oz to 30 grams and 1 gal to 4 liters.

So considering none of them are accurate I then don't get too worried about accurate measurement. My scales measure to the gram though so they are usually pretty close to the converted measurement. Unless it's going to involve annoying amounts of leftovers. I buy base malts by the kg minimum and specialty malts in 500g minimum, hops usually come in 100g packages so I round it appropriate to that as well.

 

[Puddlethumper]

The most important thing, IMO, isn't that you measure super accurately, but that you take and keep good notes. If you know exactly what you did when you brewed that wonderful IPA you have a better chance of repeating it. Conversely, if your gravity came in way out of line or the color was way off the only way you can figure out why is to look at those notes. .. i.e. "maybe I should have only added 4 oz of Crystal 120 like the recipe called for, etc."

Cheers!

 

[unionrdr]

Since my scale only goes to 1 tenth accuracy, I round off a recipe's weights to the nearest tenth. Say the give 1.35ozs, I round off to 1.4ozs. Or 1lb, 2.32ozs, I round off to 1lb, 2ozs. Usually close enough. I tend to think some recipes listed in magazines, etc are from Beersmith or some other recipe calculator that gives finer weights than the average scale is capable of? So rounding to the nearest tenth seems to work fine for me.

 

[Onkel_Udo]

10 gallon batches to I am a little sloppy by many people's standards.

I measure base grains by the Oktoberfest pitcher (2#). Specialty grains or anything under 2# go on the scale. I use a luggage scale to measure the total weight of my bucket of grains (prior to crushing) to verify that my total weight equals my recipe total weight.

I make all my hop additions no smaller that 1/2 oz but I could theoretically measure down to .1 oz. I just do not see the point as I use mostly leaf hops in my system and the only time I use pellets is for the early bittering additions with Magnum or similar.

 

[Puddlethumper]

Reading over this thread it occurs to me that we have two schools of thought going on. Both are correct. But how you approach the process will determine which you feel compelled to follow.

If you want absolute control, predictability and the ability to analyze, adjust and perfect your beers you must measure very accurately, take copious notes, and make every effort to perform each recipe exactly to specifications. We'll call this the OCD approach to brewing. It is probably what is necessary to brew competitively and is critical to brewing commercially.

The other approach is much more focused on having a good time brewing, making great drinking beer and not getting too concerned about the small stuff. We'll call this the Laid Back approach to brewing.

Both approaches will probably turn out excellent beer which is a testament to how forgiving this stuff really is. So pick the approach that fits your personality and style. Then brew on and enjoy!

Cheers!

 

[ianw58]

Keep in mind that grain and hops are agricultural products that change characteristics from batch to batch. Ultra precise measurements is a waste of time. You will not be able to perfectly duplicate the results because you can't control the variables well enough without a huge lab.

Relax. Don't worry. Be hoppy! Suck up a homebrew...

 

[Natdavis777]

Quarters only on grain and hops. No one is going to tell a difference. I do, however, measure as close as possible to water adjustments. I try to measure to the closest gram to my CaCl and CaS04 additions.

 

[C-Rider]

Oh YEA I do....Since I do only 2 gallon batches and I measure my own grain from the LHBS. Last time I was buying like 2.1 oz of some dark grain. LOL