Monitor Kettle Weight during Brewing?

[Pokey46]

I recently switched to a Brewzilla 35 with a steam condenser so that I can brew indoors with no condensation or smell issues. I love it! Except that it is very difficult to monitor boil rate (or remaining volume level, depending how you look at it) since everything is sealed. I installed an external sight glass tube but that requires pausing the boil in order to get a steady reading.
Has anyone tried putting their electric brew kettle on a continuous-duty scale and using weight readings to determine wort volume change? Seems to me that it would be the best approach if it can be done with reasonable accuracy and reliability, but those are 2 big IFs…

 

[doug293cz]

You'd need a scale with a larger footprint than the base of the boil kettle. Otherwise, you have a tipping risk with a bunch of boiling liquid. Using an interposer platform between the scale and kettle, to increase the "scale" size won't reduce the tipping risk. You also need to make sure the heat from the kettle doesn't affect the scale.

Brew on

 

[Tom R]

I recently switched to a Brewzilla 35 with a steam condenser so that I can brew indoors with no condensation or smell issues. I love it! Except that it is very difficult to monitor boil rate (or remaining volume level, depending how you look at it) since everything is sealed. I installed an external sight glass tube but that requires pausing the boil in order to get a steady reading.
Has anyone tried putting their electric brew kettle on a continuous-duty scale and using weight readings to determine wort volume change? Seems to me that it would be the best approach if it can be done with reasonable accuracy and reliability, but those are 2 big IFs…

I'm sure you can make the sight gauge work for you if you add a stabilizing tube.

This is a boiler I use in my boatshop for steam bending. The longest pipe contains the heating element, water feeds into the bottom of it, steam comes out the top.

The shorter vertical pipe is the stabilizer, it de-couples the sight gauge from the turbulence of the boiling water. The water in the sight gauge is absolutely steady.

 

[bracconiere]

if you're basiclly distilling it, measure the water condensed off?

 

[MaxStout]

Make a dipstick. Pour in water, a gallon at a time, mark the level and notch with a hacksaw blade. If you calibrate the stick with room temp water, note that the wort volume at boiling temp will be approx 4% greater than at room temp.

 

[Barbarossa]

I guess some simple sight glass like that:

 

[dyqik]

A regular sight glass seems fine to me. Yes, there's a bit of oscillation, but you can average the level by eye. In my experience it's usually at least as accurate as the estimate of loss to trub and the chiller after the boil.

 

[sicktght311]

Better question..........why are you constantly measuring your volume during the boil? Your boil off percentage should be consistent batch after batch and you should know exactly how much should be left after boil if you know how much went in