How do you weigh your grain?

[Handsaw]

I have been using pre-crushed all grain kits from various home brew mail order sites and never had to worry about weighing grain.
Now I have a 50 lb. sack of 2 row and need to weight out 15 lb. of it to crush. The other malts are not a problem because they are all less than 2 lb each and my scale will handle that.
Do you measure your grain by volume or do you actually weigh it? Is a bathroom scale precise enough for the job?

 

[NivekD]

I use a postal scale. Like THIS.

 

[HawksBrewer]

I use one from Ozeri that is available from Amazon on the cheap. Measures to a tenth of an ounce for hops and up to 12 lbs for grain. Works like a champ.

 

[solbes]

Digital scales work best. 0.1 oz resolution is all you would need. I use an Escali Primo that has an 11 lb capacity. They run about $25 and can be commonly found at home brew shops. I weigh into a large tared plastic bowl that holds 5-6 lbs.

I would not use a bathroom scale. They typically need 20-30 lbs on them before they start to become semi-accurate.

 

[hillhousesawdustco]

This:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002U4OEDS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

tenths of an ounce up to 75 lbs.

 

[Eshorebrewer]

Add another postal scale user, works great.

 

[TBaGZ]

My wife's Cuisinart kitchen scale. lol
Measures 25lbs to .1oz

And a small blade scale for hops.

 

[brick_haus]

Thanks for the thread! Just ordered mine from Amazon...

 

[thadius856]

Postal Scale. .01# (or .1 oz) up to 55 lbs. $17 shipped.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004W7IOV4/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Doing 10 gal batches, even light beers take about 15# of grain. Many of my brews push 20-25. The biggest so far was about 31# (1.070) but there are definitely plans for other brews in the 30-40# range. I wouldn't opt for a 15# scale.

 

[CityOChampBrew]

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/ultraship-35-scale.html

 

[Transamguy77]

Look at this on eBay:

WEIGHMAX GB25 LB Digital Postal Diet Food Weigh Kitchen Scale 25 LBS BLACK NEW

http://bit.ly/X8SZP8

This is what I use.

 

[sudbuster]

I have been using pre-crushed all grain kits from various home brew mail order sites and never had to worry about weighing grain.
Now I have a 50 lb. sack of 2 row and need to weight out 15 lb. of it to crush. The other malts are not a problem because they are all less than 2 lb each and my scale will handle that.
Do you measure your grain by volume or do you actually weigh it? Is a bathroom scale precise enough for the job?

Calibrated volune...

 

[DrunkleJon]

I use a cheap .01 oz-11 lb food scale i picked up at Targay. It's good enough for me.

 

[mjdonnelly68]

This:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002U4OEDS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

tenths of an ounce up to 75 lbs.

Second this scale - works great.

Make sure to get one with a detachable face plate - that's key.

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

Weigh out a few very accurate 1 lb lots and put them into a gallon jug. If you tap it down you should get 10 lbs grain into the jug. calibrate a smaller jug or plastic container as well.

 

[LowNotes]

I use a cheap scale, I think it was $15 at bed bath and beyond. Is accurate to 1/8 oz and has 11lb max.

I don't mind having the relatively low max, because I weigh the grain in a bowl and then transfer to a larger container. If I have more than 11lbs of base grain, I just weigh out 10lbs, dump it into the big one, then weigh out the remaining amount and dump it into the big one.

The postal scales other have posted seem perfect though, and I would consider that if I was doing it all over again, especially if it is $17 total including shipping.

 

[Spartan1979]

Digital scales work best. 0.1 oz resolution is all you would need. I use an Escali Primo that has an 11 lb capacity. They run about $25 and can be commonly found at home brew shops. I weigh into a large tared plastic bowl that holds 5-6 lbs.

I would not use a bathroom scale. They typically need 20-30 lbs on them before they start to become semi-accurate.

I use that same scale and it seems to be very accurate. I use a 1 gallon pitcher to hold the grain and measure it out 4 pounds at a time.

 

[dryboroughbrewing]

postal scale, dump the grain into a bucket (after zeroing the scale with the bucket on it). Makes it easy to feed into my mill hopper.

 

[Handsaw]

Second this scale - works great.

Make sure to get one with a detachable face plate - that's key.

It doesn't look like this one has a detachable face plate. I only saw one referenced that had the detachable face plate and it was from Northern Brewer. The price was OK but their shipping makes them unattractive. I do like the idea of having the readout out from under the bucket.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I calibrated my 5 gallon water bottle hopper attached to the grain mill in 2 lb increments, so I just fill the hopper to the desired level. Specialty grains are either weighed or measured by volume using a calibrated pitcher.

 

[thadius856]

Weigh out a few very accurate 1 lb lots and put them into a gallon jug. If you tap it down you should get 10 lbs grain into the jug. calibrate a smaller jug or plastic container as well.

Different grains have different densities. Anyyhing in the 250L+ range seems the be about 10% denser. White wheat, torrified wheat, midnight wheat, rye, dehusked carafa, flaked maize, flaked rice, rice or barley hulls, flaked barley, etc etc... all different densities.

 

[ApothecaryBrewing]

Really? ... A scale.

How did a thread about a weighing grain hit 3 pages of replies

 

[Handsaw]

I've ordered the one from Northern Brewer because I had two $10.00 gift cards that took care of the shipping. It has the detachable faceplate so I can put the bucket on the scale as I'm scooping out the grain.
I wasn't sure (still not) how consistent the weight/volume ratio of grain is so I'm nervous about the calibrated volume method. Anyway, I've pulled the trigger.
Thanks for all of the replies.

 

[Handsaw]

Really? ... A scale.

How did a thread about a weighing grain hit 3 pages of replies

Yeah, 3 pages of good feedback. Yes, use a scale, but which one? I just wanted some ideas of which scale would be the best value for me and I got the feedback I needed.
Thanks everyone.