Brewing without scales

[Dr_Jeff]

If there are 2 110V outlets on separate circuits (and on opposite sides in the main panel), there will be 240V between them.
You'd need 2 extension cords and bridge them. I'm quite sure that would violate your "installation's" fair use policy.

Also any electric stove, clothes dryer, and such will be 240V.

There is a dryer in a room across the hall from where our brew room is, but there would be too many eyes that could see what is going on. It's not against the rules, as people have been brewing on and off out here for a long time. After I had been here a little while, I was told that folks used to brew out here and where the leftover equipment was, I went and looked around, found some swing top bottles, liter and half liter, grabbed those, a big kettle, a burner with a windshield, a broken auto siphon, and a number of other small items, but there wasn't enough left. Also didn't have a clue as to how they ran the burner, as there is no propane out here, and really no feasible way to get any out here. Although it may have been available in the past.

I'm pretty certain that all off the outlets are on the same circuit, and messing with any wiring would be a surefire way to get into trouble.

 

[Velnerj]

Although it makes an awesome amount of sense for everyone to go metric, it's simply not gonna happen, definitely not in our lifetime.

I was born and raised in metric (North Western) Europe, but when I moved to the US at age 30 I had to convert and think in SAE and Fahrenheit. It took a few years, but it became 2nd nature.

Now conversions back and forth, from and to metric, are still the most puzzling, online calcs are a great boon for that. But as long as one thinks and acts in either, life is quite simple. The measuring part that is.

Yeah definitely understand that but was just thinking in this one guy's case in his sphere of brewing (only) converting recipes to Metric would make his life a lot easier...

 

[madscientist451]

Do you weigh grain on that, having only a 4.4 pound max capacity?

Yeah, I'm used to it, sometimes I have to weigh out 4 lbs, dump it in the bucket, another 4 lbs and so on, its not that big of a deal.

 

[IslandLizard]

Yeah definitely understand that but was just thinking in this one guy's case in his sphere of brewing (only) converting recipes to Metric would make his life a lot easier...

The main issue is there are no liter or kilogram measures in the U.S. or at least very hard to come by, outside the scientific world.

Volumes here are typically in gallons, quarts, pints, fl. oz, tbsp, tsp. etc., or whole fractions thereof 1/2, 1/4, 1/8...
For example, the OP said he uses a gallon vinegar jug to measure water volumes when brewing. He probably drew a line somewhere at the 1/2 gallon level.

Weights are in pounds or oz. You do find amounts in recipes such as 7.25 gallons, 4.5 pounds or 2.5 oz... so decimals are used, but don't show in decimal measures, they would have gradations in 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc.

 

[Velnerj]

The main issue is there are no liter or kilogram measures in the U.S. or at least very hard to come by, outside the scientific world.

Volumes here are typically in gallons, quarts, pints, fl. oz, tbsp, tsp. etc., or whole fractions thereof 1/2, 1/4, 1/8...
For example, the OP said he uses a gallon vinegar jug to measure water volumes when brewing. He probably drew a line somewhere at the 1/2 gallon level.

Weights are in pounds or oz. You do find amounts in recipes such as 7.25 gallons, 4.5 pounds or 2.5 oz... so decimals are used, but don't show in decimal measures, they would have gradations in 1/2, 1/4, 1/8 etc.

That's true but OP said he had these:

We also found several cases of 1L swing top bottles that someone else had left behind for any "overage" in the fermenters.

 

[Toxxyc]

My opinion - unless you are brewing to numbers, or BJCP styles, or for judging at competitions, or trying to replicate a precise recipe, you don't need a scale. I started off with a small scale that gave issues, so one day I simply took a bucket, measured out specific weights of malt, added them to the bucket and made marks. I now know to what level, roughly, to pour the malt in the bucket to get a rough "weight", and I brewed like that for almost 18 months. The only stuff I weighed were my hops and specialty malts, in small amounts.

Hell, I can't even remember the last time I used a hydrometer in my "just for myself" brews at home. I boil, pour into cube, and next day I pitch yeast. Once the fermentation stops, I typically seal the fermenter and leave it for another 5 days or so before cold crashing and kegging. Done. Nice beer on tap. And it works:

Pseudo-pilsner. I have no idea exactly how much malt went in there, what the OG or FG was, or what the ABV is. I just know that it sits (well, sat, the keg kicked it this past weekend) at 23 IBUs, bittered with the cheapest, high IBU hops I could find, and has some Perle and Saaz hops at flameout. Fermented with S-04.

 

[Beer666]

My mate never weighs anything. He just chucks in malts and hops and has no idea what strength his beer is. Most of his beer is decent but impossible to recreate. FFS.

 

[GrowleyMonster]

I have scales and I have hydrometer, but I really haven't had reason to use either one, lately. Two 5lb bags of Viking pale 2-row, about a fifth of a bag of 350L Chocolate, a cannister of quaker quick oats, a cannister of quaker quick grits, two closed fistfuls of Helga hops, BE-134 or Voss Kviek or harvested yeast, for a 5 gallon batch. Fermentation is indoors, climate controlled, room temperature. (typically about 74F.) This is a simple recipe and I am not going to bother fine tuning it because frankly I don't think my palate can discern the difference between the 10lb 2-row and 9lb 13oz or whatever. The amounts are partly influenced by ease of measurement, and it just happens to work nicely for me. Scales don't make your beer taste better. They just give you another detail to agonize over, and trivia to share with other HB'ers.

 

[Newsman]

I have scales and I have hydrometer, but I really haven't had reason to use either one, lately. Two 5lb bags of Viking pale 2-row, about a fifth of a bag of 350L Chocolate, a cannister of quaker quick oats, a cannister of quaker quick grits, two closed fistfuls of Helga hops, BE-134 or Voss Kviek or harvested yeast, for a 5 gallon batch. Fermentation is indoors, climate controlled, room temperature. (typically about 74F.) This is a simple recipe and I am not going to bother fine tuning it because frankly I don't think my palate can discern the difference between the 10lb 2-row and 9lb 13oz or whatever. The amounts are partly influenced by ease of measurement, and it just happens to work nicely for me. Scales don't make your beer taste better. They just give you another detail to agonize over, and trivia to share with other HB'ers.

I hear ya. I'm crashing a cyser right now. I put all the ingredients in a BMB, waited a few days, added another pack of yeast in a starter (that kinda gave it a good "reboot" for a few days where the krausen got kicked up a bit. Let it go for another week or so.
I just dumped two vanilla beans in there for an extra bit of flavor. O haven't even sampled it yet.

 

[bkboiler]

I agree with the beam balance idea. A somewhat round rock and a stick would do in a pinch as long as you can find some consistent sized shells or pebbles to use as your counter weight.
That's the old method is to just adapt your brewing method to "eighty shells of hops" or "10 stones of grain"...it'll be a new unit of measure, call it a stone! (Oh wait)...