messed up my beer tonight

[OHIOSTEVE]

I made the ODE TO ARTHUR recipe tonight for the 3rd or 4th time. I had a leak in my regulator so had to switch to a different burner and did not get a real hard boil so my OG was only about 1.032..WAY low. what was supposed to be
5 gallons at 1.048 is 6 gallons at 1.032..... bad thing is I had a guy here learning to make beer.

 

[Singletrack]

If it happens in the future, just keep boiling until you get the target final volume.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

If it happens in the future, just keep boiling until you get the target final volume.

I cannot tell the volume until I put it in the ferment bucket.

 

[Btaz]

Make a dip stick with measurements on it so that you can determine what the volume is while boiling. Make sure to account for wort expansion at temp

 

[turkeydinner]

I measured my boiling-rig by pouring 5Liters of water (4 times) and every time I measured how high the water was in centimeters. For example I got a consistent result that 20Liters equals 16.4cm. So now I measure my wort height and calculate the amount by (20/16.4 * wortHeight = X liters). This is more accurate imho than using a marked stick - especially if you have a relatively wide pot, so that the marked stick lines are a bit too close together for accurate readings.

 

[Singletrack]

I cannot tell the volume until I put it in the ferment bucket.

As I'm sure you know, this is no good. Brewing is weight, volume, temperature, time, (specific) gravity, and magic. You need a way to measure all of these at critical times, or risk failure.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

As I'm sure you know, this is no good. Brewing is weight, volume, temperature, time, (specific) gravity, and magic. You need a way to measure all of these at critical times, or risk failure.

my boil kettle has a sight "glass" but it is basically useless....I have brewed so much on my rig I just know my boil off.. dead space .. absorption etc... I just got thrown a curve last night so now I have to make sure I am prepared in case it ever happens again... so a functioning sight glass is in my future.

 

[Singletrack]

my boil kettle has a sight "glass" but it is basically useless....I have brewed so much on my rig I just know my boil off.. dead space .. absorption etc... I just got thrown a curve last night so now I have to make sure I am prepared in case it ever happens again... so a functioning sight glass is in my future.

Hmmm... I wonder about the sight glass then. Maybe that's unnecessary complication for you? I think I would just make a stick for those times when I get a curveball. Happy brewing!

 

[Btaz]

... So now I measure my wort height and calculate the amount by (20/16.4 * wortHeight = X liters). This is more accurate imho than using a marked stick - especially if you have a relatively wide pot, so that the marked stick lines are a bit too close together for accurate readings.

So how do you measure the height? For me, this is what the dip stick is for as I don't have a sight glass or measurement markers on my various kettles, carboys, and fermentors.

 

[turkeydinner]

So how do you measure the height? For me, this is what the dip stick is for as I don't have a sight glass or measurement markers on my various kettles, carboys, and fermentors.

With one of those rolled-metal-measuring tapes(don't know how it is in English). I put one end in the pot and read the cm/mm from there. After that I do the calculations. A millimeter here or there is about 0.5 liters. I used a measuring stick for a short-while, but it was really hard to get accurate(+-0.1 liters) readings from it.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

before anyone trashes me... I know it is way too fast.. I know it is green.. this stuff fermented out in a couple days.. FG was stable so I cold crashed it and kegged it ( gonna send it to a party I cannot attend lol) it is AWFUL.