kettle measuring stick

I want to make a stick for measuring the depth of the wort in my kettle during the boil.

What do you guys use? I was thinking a peice of oak dowel or 2x2 oak with notches every half gallon or so.

Can I see what everybody else uses?

Linc

I put notches in my oak mash paddle and use that for everything. It looks cool and is one less piece of equipment I need around.

I was thinking about something like this. I don't have anyway to gauge how much fluid I have in my keggle, or my smaller (8.5gal) boil pot. I might just use the long plastic spoon I have, and make some marks on that. Starting with 5 gal in the pot, then stick the measuring stick in to find out the level, then mark it. Then add a gallon and mark again. I will probably do this up to the 15 gal. level on my keggle. Might have to use a different measuring stick for my other boil pot.

Good idea, anyway.

I had started with my plastic spoon but the notches are hard to see in the boiling couldron of steaming bubbling beer. Especially when boiling 7 gallons in a 15 gallon pot. With the wood stick, you can stick it in the pot and lift it out to see where the fluid level is like an oil dispstick. That's my thought anyway.

I use a yard stick.

i used the spoon that came with my first beginners kit. i did exactly what Bombo80 talked about; marked the spoon with a sharpie for each gallon i added. after i had done 4-5 gallons on my 15 gallon kettle, i measured to find out that it was just over an inch per gallon, so i continued to mark off by measuring. the only reason i was able to do this is that my boil kettle has straight parallel sides. this wouldn't be as accurate on a keggle because of the way the sides bow. after i was done measuring i used a pipe cutter (the kind with a cutting wheel that you twist) to groove the marks. then i came back with the sharpie and colored in the grooves, making sure to get the ink all the way into the groove. next i sanded the stem of the spoon with 120 sandpaper to smooth out the bumps the pipe cutter left behind. i followed that up with 400 grit just to make it really smooth. the blue marks are for my 15 gallon kettle, and the black marks are for my 5 gallon. if i hadn't have had this spoon laying around i would have just used a piece of small diameter pvc pipe. if you're really fancy (but not fancy enough to make a sight glass) you could use a length of copper and notch it the same way, and tack that into the inside of the keggle.

A sight glass is just a bunch more parts to clean. I personally have opted not to have any for this reason.

I took my 21" brewing spoon (SS, can be had at morebeer) and notched both sides with my grinder at each gallon mark. No site glasses to break...or even buy. It does have a way of snagging my mesh bags, but not too badly. This is highly visible, durable, and serves a dual purpose.

WBC said:

A sight glass is just a bunch more parts to clean. I personally have opted not to have any for this reason.

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Not really. I just blow some water through them as I'm cleaning up. Easy.

I took a piece of 1/2" CPVC pipe, marked it with a sharpie, and also drilled holes through it at the marks. Works great!

I used a pencil grinder with a carbide bur and put lines on the inside of my kettle every 1/2 gal. and from 5 gallons up to 15 gallons I ground in the number next to the line.

WBC said:

A sight glass is just a bunch more parts to clean. I personally have opted not to have any for this reason.

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Crap, I better rip the sites off my vessels then ;-) Sparky is right, just a little shot of water through the tube is all it takes. I don't know what "parts" you mean.

My new kettle has a sight glass but on my old pot I just got a piece of copper tube, beat the **** out of it with a hammer so it was flat, put a 'u' in the top end so it hung over the edge of the pot by smacking it with a hammer on another piece of tubing. Dropped it in the kettle and marked every litre by taking it out of the water and used hammer + old screwdriver to smack a line in it.

Ghetto stick, geah geah.

I found an old wooden dowel and used that. I also noticed that the gallon marks that I notched into it are exactly 1" apart.

I used a piece of .5" copper pipe and marked rings with one pass of the pipe cutter for each gallon, then carved notches and roman numerals with the dremel for every 5 gallons (pot is 25.) I call it the great divining rod.

SenorWanderer said:

i used the spoon that came with my first beginners kit. i did exactly what Bombo80 talked about; marked the spoon with a sharpie for each gallon i added. after i had done 4-5 gallons on my 15 gallon kettle, i measured to find out that it was just over an inch per gallon, so i continued to mark off by measuring. the only reason i was able to do this is that my boil kettle has straight parallel sides. this wouldn't be as accurate on a keggle because of the way the sides bow. after i was done measuring i used a pipe cutter (the kind with a cutting wheel that you twist) to groove the marks. then i came back with the sharpie and colored in the grooves, making sure to get the ink all the way into the groove. next i sanded the stem of the spoon with 120 sandpaper to smooth out the bumps the pipe cutter left behind. i followed that up with 400 grit just to make it really smooth. the blue marks are for my 15 gallon kettle, and the black marks are for my 5 gallon. if i hadn't have had this spoon laying around i would have just used a piece of small diameter pvc pipe. if you're really fancy (but not fancy enough to make a sight glass) you could use a length of copper and notch it the same way, and tack that into the inside of the keggle.

Click to expand...

The Sharpie won't harm the beer at all? I did the same thing yesterday and have been looking for a way to mark the grooves I made in a 1/2" diameter piece of CPVC pipe.

I use a yardstick and sometimes a tape measure. I calculated an inch to gallons conversion factor for each of my kettles. I also know the volume beneath the false bottoms in each so the measurement can be made from the false bottom to the surface level of the liquid. You can get fairly precise with this method. IMO, accurate volume measurements are more important than most realize. What seems like a minor decrease or increase of the wort volume will change the gravity quite a bit.

Bernie Brewer said:

I found an old wooden dowel and used that. I also noticed that the gallon marks that I notched into it are exactly 1" apart.

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Is this on a 1/2 bbl keg? If so, then each qt is actually 5/16". At least according to my rudimentary measurements...

Brutus Brewer said:

The Sharpie won't harm the beer at all? I did the same thing yesterday and have been looking for a way to mark the grooves I made in a 1/2" diameter piece of CPVC pipe.

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I have the same spoon and did the same thing with pipe cutter but did not use the sharpie.

http://www.sharpie.com/img/compel/2uVxSm8nGMC_GBGD4n_1B2pJobBS0x1G/SharpieRT.pdf Seems like it won't kill you but decided not to test it out on myself.

Lil' Sparky said:

Is this on a 1/2 bbl keg? If so, then each qt is actually 5/16". At least according to my rudimentary measurements...

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I guess it depends on how accurate you want to be because even typical near-cylindrical kegs have variance due to the bulges in the walls.

Brutus Brewer said:

The Sharpie won't harm the beer at all? I did the same thing yesterday and have been looking for a way to mark the grooves I made in a 1/2" diameter piece of CPVC pipe.

Click to expand...

I wondered this as well. I didn't imagine it killing a person, but still.... yuk.

For me, I just used an engraver to mark every 1/2 gallon mark on the inside of my aluminum kettle. Works just fine.

Bobby_M said:

I guess it depends on how accurate you want to be because even typical near-cylindrical kegs have variance due to the bulges in the walls.

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or dents ... Me and BM have some ugly junk...

Bobby_M said:

I guess it depends on how accurate you want to be because even typical near-cylindrical kegs have variance due to the bulges in the walls.

Click to expand...

I have my collection of all Anheuser Bush kegs so the level per/gallons is the same on all three kegs before the cooling coil is inserted into the The only different keg this the HLT because of the water displaced by the coils for the HERM's system.

I replied about making a measuring rule many months ago. Sold it with the last brewing rig. I made another measuring rule out of 1/8" x 1" wide x 40" long 304 stainless steel stock, I needed a longer measuring rule anyway. On one side it's marked off in gallons of HOT liquid and corrected allowing for the thermal shrinkage of net cold gallons after the boil has been cooled to pitch as well for the HLT scale. The other side is marked in gallons for the HLT due to the added displacement of the coils in the HLT making it a different scale. Letters stamped across the top to note what scale to use. With the gallon lines scored in plus the numbers stamped with a number / letter stamp set makes for a accurate simple to use and a easy to sanitize measuring rule.
Added a 1/4" hole to hang it on the brew stand, stainless for easy cleaning plus not made of wood or any other material that can absorb any nasty bugs or harbor any bacteria.
I'll take a hot measurement volume that's corrected for the cold net wort before filling the fermenter. Bottom line I hate not having a full net volume on brew day plus this makes my brew day a little more easy.