How far up is 5 1/2 Gallons?

[RonRock]

Good morning everyone. Lets start out with a stupid question.

Can someone tell me how far up in a 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy 5 1/2 gallons is?

I need to take time to mark them I know. But it is so much fun keeping them full.

Anyway I brew'd another batch of Ed's Haus Pale Ale yesterday. My first AG. It went OK only a few bumps on the way. But the carboy sure looks low today.

I'll save my other stupid questions for later.

Thanks,
Ron

 

[BellsBeerDrinker]

i would just use something around the house and measure it out so you know for sure...

ie: a nalgene bottle or empty milk jugs.

 

[BlackDogBrewing]

I used my bottling bucket, filled it to 5 gallons and dunped it into my 6 gallon carboy, then marked the level with some black electrical tape.

 

[RonRock]

Here is what I'm concerned about. The one on left is 6.5 gal. with 5.5 gal Haus Ale. the one on right is 6 gal with 5.5 Fat Tire. Neither of them look like they have enough to me.

 

[BPD]

Measured mine and it is approx 12 inches

My Carboy from Annapolis Home Brew came with a label that had a range marked. The 5 gal mark is at 11 7/8 and the upper mark is at 12 3/8 inches.
I never actually measured it but is seems right on. I have brewed 8 beers in it and usually fill it to somewhere in between.

 

[farmbrewernw]

Sorry dude you probably don't have 5.5 gal of Ed's Pale Ale, I have done this a couple of times lately found out that my grad points on my measuring sticks where way off and that I have been boiling off more than I have been used to.

 

[wildwest450]

The one on the right looks close to 5.5, the other one is at least a gallon shy.

Since I don't have a life I re-checked mine. My carboy is exactly 20-1/4" tall, it is 13-3/4" to the 5.5 gallon mark. I even leveled the carboy so it is exact. I don't know if all carboys are a standard size, I would guess no.

At 5 gallons

At 5.5 gallons

 

[Deacon240]

Because it's glass each one will vary more widely than a plastic bucket. Measure out each one if you need that measurement.

 

[mw20]

I mark all my carboys . I also marked a bucket in one gallons increments for mixing sanitizer. I used a quart measuring cup to get up to the first gallon mark on the bucket and then use the gallon mark to fill the carboys up to the five gallon mark.

 

[RonRock]

Thanks guys, I thought about it more and there can't be 5.5 gallons in there. I need to check my marks on my spoon. Don't know how I missed it that bad. Although I did go with a more vigorous boil than past batches. Thought I had read that would not matter. I'll do a boil with water and check it out. I checked my OG and it was 1.054 which is a bit high but didn't think that was unusual. Oh well.

Now is there anything I can do at this point? I pitched at about 7:30 PM last evening. I could add water and re pitch, maybe? Or should I just say WTF and wait for about 4 gallons of High Power? Or add water after fermenting?

I want to thank everyone for their help. Especially for taking the time to take photo's. Cool!

 

[TheProph3t]

Not sure if this might help ya... but there was a post about marking your carboy... link

 

[Opherman47]

ok so on a i just measured this on a 6.5 gallon carboy it was 9.5 inches for 4 gallons, 11.5 gallon for 5 gallons and 13.5 for 6 gallons sorry i was to lazy to measure the rest i think this is what people are looking for, i know i was and couldnt find it anywhere.... based on these measurements i would guess you could subtract 2 inches and get the lesser meaurements ie 3 gallons etc...... btw i measured this with a tape measure from the ground next to the carboy

 

[alpo]

Just go to the website or call the company you got the carboy from and get the weight. Then weigh yours and you should be able to calculate how much is in there.

 

[bad coffee]

I just put mine on my postal scale, Tared it out, and added 8# of water. Mark for first gallon. Repeat 4.5 times.

I etched mine, then went over it with a white paint marker, then razored off the excess.

B

 

[RonRock]

Again thanks everyone. Looks like I have a little over 4 gallons of High Power Haus Ale. Don't know how it happened, but oh well.

Now anybody have any ideas how to fix it?

Water down now, or later? Just leave it as is and learn from it for the next batch? I'd rather have a light brew than a high power over alcohol'd beer.

 

[HairyDogBrewing]

I just put mine on my postal scale, Tared it out, and added 8# of water. Mark for first gallon. Repeat 4.5 times.

A gallon of water at 60F weighs 8.32 pounds (US standard units).

 

[RonRock]

I spent yesterday running some test boils. It did vary somewhat depending on the amount of water in the kettle at start. My guess is more water takes longer to reach boil so not as much is boiled off in same amount of time.

But it all boils down to this. (Cheap pun) I boil off 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 gallons in one hour. Wow that seems like a lot! I also took time to make some better marks on my spoon.

In one respect I feel better about the findings. That tells me that I did at least have the 6 1/2 gallons at the beginning of my boil. I just boiled off too much. And did not have legible marks on my spoon. I just trusted the amount would be correct and moved on.

My next brew will be my best yet.

 

[camiller]

I spent yesterday running some test boils. It did vary somewhat depending on the amount of water in the kettle at start. My guess is more water takes longer to reach boil so not as much is boiled off in same amount of time.

But it all boils down to this. (Cheap pun) I boil off 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 gallons in one hour. Wow that seems like a lot! I also took time to make some better marks on my spoon.

In one respect I feel better about the findings. That tells me that I did at least have the 6 1/2 gallons at the beginning of my boil. I just boiled off too much. And did not have legible marks on my spoon. I just trusted the amount would be correct and moved on.

My next brew will be my best yet.

Bear in mind that when it is cold out your boil will evaporate faster than when it is warm out. I noticed with my last three brews in November that I had to add a lot more top off water than during the summer.

 

[alpo]

Does the amount of water boiled off really matter? I mean, I never really notice one way or the other how much water evaporates off. When I pour the cooled wort into the fermentor, I just add enough extra sanitized water to get to about 5 1/4 gallons. Some of that will evaporate during fermentation and in the secondary, then by the time I am ready to bottle, I am left with about 5 gallons.

Maybe that's the wrong thing to do, but that's what the instructions that came with my first kit said and that's what I've always done.