Weighing BK during the boil...

I neglected to mark my sightglasses with bobby_m's vinyl number set so I'm faced with the task of recalibrating/remarking as the initial Sharpie marks have faded.

I recently purchased a Weighmax postal scale to weigh out grain and I got to thinking.... why couldn't I boil my wort while it's on the scale? Obviously those using NG or propane might have a difficult time, but why couldn't you do it with an electric kettle or for that matter the mash tun for more accurate/easier strike water measurement?

 

I'd be concerned about the capability of the components in the scale to handle that much heat.

 

I had considered that.. Since the scale has a capacity of 330 lbs I was planning (for a proof-of-concept project) to lay a piece of durock on the scale. Unless anyone has a piece of asbestos I could have.

 

I'm not sure this is something you want to do. Moving around a boil kettle full of hot wort sounds like a recipe for disaster.

 

Actually I was thinking about not moving the BK. Just leave it sitting on the scale for the entire boil.

 

Use the scale to calibrate your sight glass with cold water

 

Since wort varies in density you will have some issues:
It will work for:

• Checking you grain mass
• strike water volume (p = 1000 kg/m3)
• Sparge water volume (p = 1000 kg/m3)

It won't work for:

• initial boil volume, unless you take gravity reading and do some maths
• Boil off, again you could with a gravity reading and some maths
• Final volume, unless you take gravity reading and do some maths
• all of the above will have some error due to hops break material being of different density

It would be easier to calibrate the sight glass since you already have it, as jCOS suggested use the scale to make it easy to calibrate

 

Just use the scale to weigh a gallon of water. Level the keggle off with a carpenter's level, pour in a gallon of water and mark it.

A gallon of water weighs 8 lb, 5.5 oz.

 

Thats why you guys should see the light and convert to metric:
1 litre = 1kg