using a scale to measure volumes

[ryancrook]

Has anyone had experience with using a scale to accurately measure wort during their brewing process? I have marks on my fermenter and a wooden stick with notches, but I'm curious to know if anyone tried throwing their carboy onto a scale and then racking the wort in order to get a more precise measurement of the total volume. And/or putting their keg on a scale before racking from their primary to see how much wort was actually lost.

 

[Warthaug]

It would work well for pure water, but once you begin adding solutes (sugars) and insolubles (hops), and heating (thermal expansion) the math to figure out what your volume is becomes tricky.

Bryan

 

[helibrewer]

Volume = Mass / Density
So by knowing the mass (weight) and specific gravity (density) you can get pretty darn close. You would want to get the tare weight of your respective vessels.

 

[myndflyte]

The fact that you can actually measure the density, you should be able to get pretty close. You just need to make sure you use the correct units. Density needs to be converted to grams/liter and obviously convert the weight to grams.

 

[broadbill]

As other have stated, it would work. My question is why do you need to be more accurate than a marked stick or notches on the boil kettle?

 

[PrinceOfThePoint]

As helibrewer said, this would be a perfectly good way to calculate your volume of wort, *assuming* uniform density throughout (which could be affected by trub? Not sure).

Volume = weight / spec. gravity

 

[ryancrook]

Awesome! Thank you guys for the great info!