weighing ingredients

[mergs]

I did my first gluten free batch yesterday. It was a Grapefruit IPA from Igliashon's new brewery Ghostfish IPA. The grapefruit zest had me at hello.

One of the things that was new to me (well a lot was new), was getting the right amount of fermentable ingredients into the kettle. For example, from the recipe:

http://ghostfishbrewing.com/ghostfishblog/gfhomebrewing-grapefruit-ipa/

Fermentables:

5 lb liquid white sorghum extract
27 oz D-45 “Amber” candi syrup
21 oz raw unfiltered buckwheat honey
0.5 to 1 lb of maltodextrin, depending on how full of a body you want

My sorghum extract came in a 6 lb jug, so I guesstimated and poured about 5/6th of it into the kettle when instructed (actually it was 2.5 pounds at boil start, then the rest at flameout). I ended up with 1/6th leftover or thereabouts. What are people typically doing to measure this out accurately?

Next was the d-45: it came in 2 16oz packages, so I poured 1 in (16oz) and then poured out 11 oz of the 2nd (by measuring 11 oz into a pyrex measuring cup). I think I botched this since there was almost nothing left. Was I correct that the d-45 was a fluid oz measurement?

Now to the honey. Boy was I stymied by this at first. I scooped 12 oz into a pyrex cup, then dumped, then scooped another 9oz into the pyrex. That seemed to be way too much since it came into a 5 lb plastic container. I then found a weight to volume converter for honey;

http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/honey_measurements.html

putting in 21oz converts to 1.75 cups (which is what i did, in the pyrex measure). I don't know how accurate I was but was I on the right track?

Suffice to say, I was a little confused about weight measures vs. volume and not having a scale handy had to improvise a little. My accuracy must have been a little off somewhere (probably the honey) because my SG was 1.065 whereas the recipe was calling for 1.057.

Can anyone offer any helpful tips on what they do for measuring out these sorts of fermentables?

 

[glutarded-chris]

I use an inexpensive jewelers scale for precise measurement such as hops and brewing salt additions, and a regular kitchen scale for larger weights like grain, honey, etc. You can get a jewelers scale on line and a kitchen scale at Target, Wallmart etc.
Nothing very expensive but they are very handy.

 

[PaintedRat]

I would scale it to 6 gallons. Use the full 6lb sorghum, two 1lb packages of D45, then just fight with the 26oz of honey. Your hop numbers aren't as pretty, but dry ingredients are easy.

If measurements are closer to package size, I just modify the recipe to meet my needs. I also like a squeeze bottle of honey or some sugar handy for gravity adjustment.

Edit: I second glutarded-chris on the cheapo kitchen scale. I have a 2lb scale that measures down to 0.05oz. Works fine for hops and extracts. If I go to all grain, I'll buy an 11lb.

 

[igliashon]

GET. A. SCALE.

Seriously, no homebrewery is complete without a scale. Go to CVS or Walgreen's or whatever local drug store, almost all of them sell a decent scale that does fractions of an ounce or grams for $20 or less. Tare a measuring cup, pour your various syrups in it and measure by weight. All of my recipes are calculated by weight, not volume. Different liquids have different densities and thus different weight:volume ratios, so using a liquid measuring cup will often not even get you in the ballpark.

 

[cincypilot]

Here is a link to the scale I have been using for the last 4 years, weighs up to 11 lbs, AA batteries have been in it for three years. Works fine, and inexpensive, on SALE for less than $20, and you can usually find 20% coupon that will get more off from harbor freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-scale-95364.html#.Uy2VdF7VusM

Stefan

 

[mergs]

Hey guys, thanks a lot. I know this post was leaning towards the dumb side of legitimate questions, but you confirmed for me that:

a) you all are using weights and these are not volume measurements. If you only saw me trying to spoon the honey into pyrex measuring cups, only to realize something wasn't right when I realized I had way too much of a 5 lb tub of honey measured out. That's when I switched over to weight mode and used a calculator online to get the right amount.

b) I'll get a scale. i have one for hops but its for 1 ounce here, 3 ounces there not pounds of honey, sorghum etc.

The good news is my OG wasn't too off (4-5 points) so I wasn't terribly off course here.

Thanks again.

I may rack this to secondary on Sunday then dry hop there (or leave it in primary and dry hop, then rack to secondary). I haven't decided yet. Igliashon recommends the latter.

 

[CavemanDom]

This is either a good idea, or terrible...I will let other more experienced members decide. I got a scale recently. 5.5kg capacity, down to 0.05oz accuracy... And the one time so far I used honey, I filled a Pyrex measuring cup with the correct amount, (using tare button) and basically dropped the whole thing into the boil. Then fished it out with tongs. It's not graceful by any means, but all of that honey made it in. I figure the same method could work for extract syrups.


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