Using a scale for precise brewing?

[aangel]

Since the density of liquids change with temperature, I was wondering...what if I made my water measurements using a digital scale? I could just plant my mash tun on the scale, zero it, and pour water until I arrive at my exact amount. Same with the hot liquor tank. And same with collecting my mash runnings / sparge - plant the boil kettle on the scale, zero it, and then watch the readout rise until I have the correct mass of pre-boil wort?

I guess since the density/gravity of wort is different than water, I'd have to change the estimated collection amount to compensate for that. But either way, using a scale should be a lot more precise than just marking lines on a bucket or kettle right?

 

[Psylocide]

You're overthinking it... if you end up within .25 gal and hit your gravities, I don't see the need to be so meticulous.

Disclaimer: I'm pretty lackadaisical about the whole process anyway.

 

[wailingguitar]

Sounds like you aren't considering the prime directive: Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew. I agree with Pslyocide, you're over thinking it

 

[ACbrewer]

Since the density of liquids change with temperature, I was wondering...what if I made my water measurements using a digital scale? I could just plant my mash tun on the scale, zero it, and pour water until I arrive at my exact amount. Same with the hot liquor tank. And same with collecting my mash runnings / sparge - plant the boil kettle on the scale, zero it, and then watch the readout rise until I have the correct mass of pre-boil wort?

I guess since the density/gravity of wort is different than water, I'd have to change the estimated collection amount to compensate for that. But either way, using a scale should be a lot more precise than just marking lines on a bucket or kettle right?

To answer your question - yes you could do this to be more precise... assuming you first translate the assumed volumes of 5 gallons of water into an accurate weight, as you said, it varies with temp, so you have figure that out at least once.
Oh and boil off and grain absorption and whatever else factors in

Sounds like you aren't considering the prime directive: Relax, Don't Worry, Have a Homebrew. I agree with Pslyocide, you're over thinking it

I think this pretty much nails it... it gets into a 'is it worth the effort to do this ... does it substantially improve the beer'....

I score my beer like this... scale of 1 to 100 how much do I (the primary drinker of it) like it? 94? 85? 20? .... what can I do to get more like out of that, and how much effort will it be. Obviously if I can do a little to get a lot of improvement, I do it.... but generally my beer is in the 80+ as far as I'm concerned (if you don't like it, you don't have to drink it!), and thus I factor in how much effort it is to get it changed....

 

[aangel]

I'm having fun brewing, no worries there. My wife really enjoys the experimental recipes aspect of brewing and I think I enjoy the process control end of things. I'd like to get my process precise enough that I could brew an identical batch of an earlier recipe.

As far as the scale of "how much I like my beer" goes - I'm on a keto (<30g carbs/day) diet, so my ability to drink beer is almost nil. I get a daily sample of my efforts and that's it. I think it's the other facets of beer making that appeal to me more. I like seeing people enjoy my beer

 

[ACbrewer]

I'm having fun brewing, no worries there. My wife really enjoys the experimental recipes aspect of brewing and I think I enjoy the process control end of things. I'd like to get my process precise enough that I could brew an identical batch of an earlier recipe.

Then you need to look into temp control.... and proper yeast management. I think the yeast are much more sensitive to a 3 or 4 degree temp change than a .003 or .004 gravity change.

Basically about 500 flavors of the beer are yeast products and by products. The yeast will be happy to work at 60 and 70 and even up to about 105F (above that they start dying).... But YOU may not like the flavor of 80F yeast, or even 70F yeast compared to a nice stead 65F....

yeah look into yeast management as the thing for improving more than water amount

 

[IslandLizard]

Yup, given our homebrew process variations, volume deviations on that level pale by comparison.

 

[aangel]

Then you need to look into temp control.... and proper yeast management. I think the yeast are much more sensitive to a 3 or 4 degree temp change than a .003 or .004 gravity change.

Basically about 500 flavors of the beer are yeast products and by products. The yeast will be happy to work at 60 and 70 and even up to about 105F (above that they start dying).... But YOU may not like the flavor of 80F yeast, or even 70F yeast compared to a nice stead 65F....

yeah look into yeast management as the thing for improving more than water amount

For now I'm sticking with dry yeast packs I get in bulk buys (S-33, T58, S04, S05, W-6) and to be perfectly honest I've not touched anything beyond SO4/SO5 yet.

I employee temperature control for fermentation via a chest freezer and anycool controller (probe's stuck to the side of the fermenter and insulated from the outside with some mylar).

I also control water chemistry to some small degree via pH strips and acid additions, though I am saddened to realize how inaccurate my strips probably are. I'll be doing full water chemistry control soon as I have all the salts and my water report, it's just been too daunting to figure out thus far. Really wish I could just plug my water report into beersmith and have it tell me what to add.

Regarding oxygen, I use a sterile air pump and stone for 15-20 minutes for each batch to avoid the variability of just shaking air into the wort.

A big hole in my process right now is oxidation; I'm using a siphon starter to transfer from better bottle to keg as I haven't had much luck using CO2. I found some 15 gal kegs to ferment in, hopefully will be trading them for 10 gallon kegs soon so I can ferment my 5 gallon batches in them and then do a reliable fully closed transfer. Even got a filter cartridge setup that STILL doesn't work right; closing in on a solution though.