Measuring water.

[dhr18]

I'm getting ready to start my first brew and was wondering how accurate you have to be with the measurements particularly water. I'm working on making an amber ale. Thanks.

 

[fall-line]

Welcome to the forums. You want to be as precise as you reasonably can be in all things homebrew. For water, people will often start by using a measuring stick that they mark gallon increments on for their pot. You can take a gallon jug and fill your pot one gallon at a time, then insert your stick/spoon/etc and mark each gallon on it. That will give you a good guide as you fill your pot.

 

[freisste]

It depends on what you are trying to do. If you just want to make something you can drink, you can accomplish that with your eyes closed.

I will tell you that it sucks when you get to the last few bottles of a batch, realize how good it is, and you want to make another batch the same way - your notes are lacking, you know your measurements were poor (don't know accuracy or if you were high vs low), you don't know how much of everything you added, and you can't do a good job re-creating your great brew.

...hypothetically speaking, of course.

At the same time, don't pull your hair out trying to get to 5.00000 gallons. Personally, I would say being off by less than .1-.2 gallons is pretty good. For weights, get a small kitchen scale and it will be more accurate than you really need, IMHO.

 

[the_trout]

Defintley use the measuring stick trick, I marked the back of my brewing spoon. Its a bit of a pain the first time but save work on future brews as you can then just fill to your mark w/o measuring. I also marked up my fermenter at 5.5G for the same reason.

 

[bobbrews]

In addition to what was said, make sure you're basing your recipes on either Liters or Quarts... not both. The volumes are indeed slightly different, and depending on your boil size/batch size, it's best to always maintain accurate measuring practices.

1 liter = 1.05669 quart

So, 10 gallons of homebrew would either be 40 L or 42.2676 qts.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

To the quart is reasonable. If you are a half gallon off it's not going to change the beer much. Top off or boil down to hit your final volume and OG and you will be golden.

 

[dhr18]

Thanks. I was planning on measuring water by weight but that sounds over kill. I will try that spoon trick.

 

[dhr18]

So basically if I'm over or under my starting OG boil at add till I reach the desired OG and I should be good?

 

[WoodlandBrew]

1 liter = 1.05669 quart

So, 10 gallons of homebrew would either be 40 L or 42.2676 qts.

Were only talking about a 6% difference, so it really dosnt matter, but just to lay out the numbers:
10 gallons equals exactly 40 quarts.
40 Litters equals aproximently 42.2675 quarts.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

So basically if I'm over or under my starting OG boil at add till I reach the desired OG and I should be good?

That's half the battle. If your OG is correct but your boil volume is off then your hop utilization will be off. If your final volume is off but your boil volume is correct you'll get the utilization the recipe was intended for, but the IBU level in the final beer will be off.

I have a post describing all of this on my blog 1/15

 

[bobbrews]

Were only talking about a 6% difference, so it really dosnt matter, but just to lay out the numbers:
10 gallons equals exactly 40 quarts.
40 Litters equals aproximently 42.2675 quarts.

Actually, we're both wrong with our math.

1 Quart = 0.946353 Liters
1 Liter = 1.05669 Quarts

3.78541 Liters in a Gallon
4 Quarts in a Gallon

So, 10 Gallons = 37.8541 Liters or 40 Quarts

Add fuel to the fire by pitching in 2 Liters of un-decanted starter, and that 6% deviation is now 12%.

I am simply recommending to measure your brew water one way for accuracy purposes, instead of using both quarts and liters interchangeably.

 

[unionrdr]

I used a pyrex 2C measure to mark 1QT lines on a 1 gallon Sunny-D jug to measure my water with. Particularly helpfull with measuring mash water for my partial mash brews.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Actually, we're both wrong with our math.

1 Quart = 0.946353 Liters
1 Liter = 1.05669 Liters

3.78541 Liters in a Gallon
4 Quarts in a Gallon

So, 10 Gallons = 37.8541 Liters or 40 Quarts

Add fuel to the fire by pitching in 2 Liters of un-decanted starter, and that 6% deviation is now 12%.

I am simply preferring to measure things one way for accuracy... and not using both quarts and liters interchangeably.

You have it right now. I had it right the first time.

 

[bobbrews]

You have it right now. I had it right the first time.

Your 42.2675 quarts figure is wrong. So is your spelling of the words liters, approximately, doesn't, and We're

 

[freisste]

1 Liter = 1.05669 Liters

I don't have to check a book to know this one is wrong...

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Add fuel to the fire by pitching in 2 Liters of un-decanted starter, and that 6% deviation is now 12%.

Why would you do that? Either top off after pitching the yeast, compensate your final volume, or decant the starter.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Your 42.2675 quarts figure is wrong. So is your spelling of the words liters, approximately, doesn't, and We're

My spelling is wrong. My math is right.

Read it again:

10 gallons equals exactly 40 quarts.
40 Litters equals aproximently 42.2675 quarts.

Then type it in to Google to check it.

 

[bobbrews]

Why would you do that? Either top off after pitching the yeast, compensate your final volume, or decant the starter.

Just saying, some people pitch the whole thing... and others don't even know their boil-off rate. There are plenty of variables that can mess with your volumes. I wouldn't resort to topping off with a bunch of extra water as this can affect the quality of your beer, and skew from your original recipe which may not have called for any top off water.

 

[bobbrews]

My spelling is wrong. My math is right.

Read it again.

Then type it in to Google to check it.

Say what?????

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Say what?????

Type "10 galons in quarts" into google.
Then type "40 liters in quarts" into google.

I'm going to stop feeding the trolls now.

 

[bobbrews]

Google (above) just gave you your answer, troll. Do some simple math and multiply it by 10 to get 10 gallons.

10 gallons is:

37.8541 liters

not

42.2675 liters

 

[WoodlandBrew]

dhr18,

I'm sorry for hijacking your thread when making a simple and inconsequential clarification to someone else's post.

 

[bobbrews]

Well, at least you spelled everything correctly in that last post. But that doesn't change the fact that 42.2675 liters does not equal 10 gallons.... 37.8541 liters would though! You were twisting the words and talking about 40 liters in quarts, which was never the point when we were discussing the 10 gallon equivalents for each (L/Qt).

 

[richlong8020]

OMG u guys are making this way to complicated. Go to the store and buy 6 gal ( 6, 1 gal jugs ) of mountain spring water. Depending on the size of your pot add 3 to 4 gal and boil. I have a 9 gal pot so i can boil 6 gal. Add the remainder to the primary bucket. You lose about a gal between boil off and trub so you will end up with 5 gal of wort. I've boiled many batches of beer and they have been amazing. Don't over think it. Remember RDWHAHB!!!!!

Just my opinion, as always.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

OMG u guys are making this way to complicated. Go to the store and buy 6 gal ( 6, 1 gal jugs ) of mountain spring water. Depending on the size of your pot add 3 to 4 gal and boil. I have a 9 gal pot so i can boil 6 gal. Add the remainder to the primary bucket. You lose about a gal between boil off and trub so you will end up with 5 gal of wort. I've boiled many batches of beer and they have been amazing. Don't over think it. Remember RDWHAHB!!!!!

Just my opinion, as always.

Agreed. Being off by half a gallon out of 5 isnt going to destroy your beer.

 

[GotPushrods]

Thanks. I was planning on measuring water by weight but that sounds over kill. I will try that spoon trick.

Overkill schmoverkill! Maybe that should be the name of my brewery. Isn't that the fun part?!?

Find a 1-gallon jug and mark it off once. Or mark a spoon... either way I'd do it by weight for fun. Use that each time you need an accurate measurement.

Pure 70*F water has a density of 0.99797 g/mL. A gallon will weigh 3778 grams.

Divide that by 8 to get each pint, by 4 for quarts, etc. Use an accurate scale and do this once. It's well worth it.