true brew measurement accuracy

killian · Nov 22, 2007

before my last brew day I marked my 6.5 gallon carboys at the 5 gallon line by measuring 5 gallons of water in one of my true brew buckets then pouring it in to the carboy and drawing a line on the carboy with a wax pencil. when I went to sanitize the carboys I used a 5 gallon jug of Poland spring (all I had at the time) and my 5 gallon line looked like it was a half gallon short or so any ideas what the hell is going on here?

Iordz · Nov 22, 2007

I have a pot with measurements and a bucket and I marked my carboy, using my bucket as a reference! All my equipment is slightly different, but I don't fuss over small stuff because in the end I get to fill my corney keg to the gas in tube, so I'm happy. I think as long as your equipment isn't very different it should work out, but half a gallon is quite a bit, so you might want to fix that.

Bugeaterbrewing · Nov 22, 2007

Don't trust the markings on the buckets to be accurate. Use a measuring pitcher to get the markings exact. I use a paint marker (available at the big box hardware stores) to mark the carboy every half gallon. The paint markers don't wash off like the so called "permanent" markers.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

jmkratt · Apr 29, 2010

No even close

DmentD · Apr 29, 2010

Yeah, the volume marking on the brew pails are notoriously inaccurate. Get yourself a proper measuring cup of a decent volume and use that.

swankyswede · Apr 29, 2010

For mash and boil volumes, I carefully measured out by the quart to 6.5 gallons and notched my spoon with a knife at the relevant volumes. My efficiency has totally stabilized since I can now measure out my strike and sparge water, asa well as the volume collected.

Henrythe9th · Apr 29, 2010

use a 1 gal water jug to find your marks,, takes more time, but smaller measurements are more accurate

Bigscience · Apr 30, 2010

I actually calibrated my buckets and carboys liter by liter and marked masking tape on the ouside. Then I measured them with a tape measure and came up with a formula in Excel. When I'm done brewing, I can just measure the outside with a tape measure, plug the number in Excel and it spits out a volume.

Myrdhyn · Apr 30, 2010

Wouldn't an even more accurate and fast way to do this be using a scale? One gallon of water weighs 8lbs.

Find a scale your carboy will fit on, put carboy on it, tare scale, fill with hose until scale reads 40lbs. That's your 5 gallon mark.

Bigscience · Apr 30, 2010

Myrdhyn said:
Wouldn't an even more accurate and fast way to do this be using a scale? One gallon of water weighs 8lbs.

Find a scale your carboy will fit on, put carboy on it, tare scale, fill with hose until scale reads 40lbs. That's your 5 gallon mark.

You'd have to take into account the the gravity of the beer as well and be a little more accurate then 8lbs. I know we use load cells on larger tanks to formulate solutions at work. It would be cool if you could actually do it on the brew system to know what you have in each kettle/tank.

Myrdhyn · Apr 30, 2010

I have a good friend that is the software (and electrical) engineer for a loadcell firm here in research park. We've already talked about setting up something like you mentioned.

However, I meant using weight to measure off markings on the pot/measuring stick/fermenter. Use JUST water, measure it out to 8lbs/gal pour in, mark pot. Then you have an accurate set of measurements to use volumetrically in the future.

Bigscience · May 1, 2010

Myrdhyn said:
I have a good friend that is the software (and electrical) engineer for a loadcell firm here in research park. We've already talked about setting up something like you mentioned.

However, I meant using weight to measure off markings on the pot/measuring stick/fermenter. Use JUST water, measure it out to 8lbs/gal pour in, mark pot. Then you have an accurate set of measurements to use volumetrically in the future.

Ok I got you now. So you'd leave it at a gallon accuracy though?

true brew measurement accuracy

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