measuring your volumes

[alpine85]

Folks,

I am having difficulty measuring my volumes accurately throughout my brew day. My brew kettle does not have markings for volume nor does my fermentor. I tried notching my mash paddle for each gallon but I notice discrepancies and it is not precise anyway.

Does anyone have any solutions for measuring volumes more accurately?

 

[kh54s10]

I am not sure what you are measuring that you need to be that precise. I use a notched measuring stick. On my HLT I have a sight tube.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I took a wooden dowel and started pouring water from a gallon milk jug into my kettle. 1 Gallon of water, put stick in, notch it with a knife, 1 gallon of water, put stick in, notch it with a knife... do this till I got to 5 gallons (my general max batch size).

Do I actually use it? No, not really. As soon as I got off my ass to create a volume stick, I got used to seeing what 6, 5, 4, 3 gallons looked like in my kettle, not perfectly, I am always over/under by maybe .1-.2 gallons, but I don't usually worry about that too much.

The volume stick makes a good beat stick though when I feel like re-enacting the sword fights from Princess Bride.

 

[JohnK93]

I have the same issue, so I just use a 1 gallon pitcher for all measurements. It's good to the nearest 1/4 gallon, which I think is close enough.

There are instructions out there for etching the inside of your brew kettle to help with measurements, but I haven't gotten around to trying this out yet.

 

[MattyIce]

The high-end sight-glasses and brew kettle etchings function in the exact same way as your notched mash paddle. For the vast majority of us home brewers, that is more than precise enough. I have a scrap piece of copper pipe that I marked. Works for me.

 

[MaxStout]

I use a notched dowel also. But measuring during a boil when the surface is moving, is difficult. Otherwise it works great.

 

[alpine85]

WOw thanks for the super fast replies! I will retry with the mash paddle.

 

[govner1]

Folks,



I am having difficulty measuring my volumes accurately throughout my brew day. My brew kettle does not have markings for volume nor does my fermentor. I tried notching my mash paddle for each gallon but I notice discrepancies and it is not precise anyway.



Does anyone have any solutions for measuring volumes more accurately?

Try a square length of wood. 1/4-1/2" should do. You can use different sides for different containers. Also, do your calibrations w/ hot water if that's what you are mostly trying to
monitor.

 

[JasonG]

For a very long time I was frustrated with my inability to accurately measure my volumes. Although a measuring stick gave me an approximate measurement of my pre-boil volume, it was useless during the boil. A little while ago I purchased a sight glass kit from bargain fittings. I have a kettle with a welded 1/2" MPT port, which has a 1/2" FPT ball valve. I was able to put this inline between the port and the ball valve, so that I have a sight glass without having to put an additional hole in my kettle. The kit can be found at:

http://www.bargainfittings.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=45&product_id=194

I have only used it twice now, but it has been great - would not go back. Not only do I have a very accurate measurment of my pre and post boil volumes, now I can measure my volume every few minutes during the boil, and get a very accurate measurement of my boil off rate. This allows me to make volume adjustments on the fly, such as adding volume if my boil off is going too fast.

This has been one of the best equipment purchases I've made (although again, I've only used it twice so far).

JG

 

[Gavin C]

The etching is very easy and effective. Good sticky in the DIY thread under kettles and mash tuns.

My Etched Pot. It already had 1 gallon markings from the manufacturer. I just added 1/4 gallon increments.