How do you measure your water volumes?

[Hayden512]

And also how do you move your water?

I feel like since going all grain this has been the most difficult for me. I just measure out the water using the measurement lines in one of my first fermentation buckets I got when I started. However I feel like these aren't very accurate.

Moving wise for my strike water I normally just dump from my kettle to my MT. However I normally heat all of my sparge water together and it's way to heavy to lift without some help. This ends up in me transferring water from my kettle to my MT with a 1/2 gallon cup which I feel I lose a significant amount of heat from.

Just looking for any more efficient ways in doing this.

 

[JLeuck64]

Efficiency is the curse of this hobby... it's what drives us to by more equipment LOL!

When I was at the same point you are now I started thinking about a 3 tier system using a HLT and a sight glass on the side. It works great, but in hind site I probably could have spent less money on a kettle that had graduation marks plus a pump.

 

[mongoose33]

I doubt you're losing very much heat at all with that 1/2-gallon cup.

When I started I drained water from my kettle to my mash tun--but that's both slow and inefficient. I turned to filling a pitcher by dipping it into the kettle. Three or four dips and I can dump the rest from the kettle right into the mash tun.

 

[ncsuwerewolf]

I also run everything into fermentation buckets for volume measuring. I find my efficency is better with 2 equal batch sparges. So i run off my first runnings while filling my first Sparge. I dump it and go back to run off my second while letting the first settle into the grain bed. After i have my full second sparge, i dump the kettle and add my first runnings. I run off my first sparge and start my second sparge. First sparge goes into the kettle and i light the fire. Run off second sparge , add it and wait for it to come up to a boil. Clean the tun while that is happening.

 

[McKnuckle]

I measure volumes first by filling a plastic spring water gallon jug to a marked line. I do this multiple times for the whole gallons in the batch. For any remaining fractional gallons, I convert the amount to liters and weigh it on a scale in kilograms, which equal the amount of liters (i.e. 3 kg water = 3 l).

 

[SGTSparty]

I still measure with the bucket lines too. I typically use the lines for the nearest Gallon and then use a 4 cup measuring cup for smaller volumes after that. However, I'm going to build myself a gauge stick (PVC pipe or wood dowel treated w/ mineral oil with volume lines marked on it) one of these weekends. I only use two pots, one for sparge water and one for mashing/boiling which has a thermometer, spigot and false bottom. I typically measure my mashing water (converted to account for the space under the false bottom) before heating it up using the gallon lines/measuring cups system, heat, dough in, cover and wrap in towels/blankets. Then I measure my sparge water (less the volume under my false bottom), heat in another vessel. Then I fly sparge into a bottling bucket using the mashing tun spigot for egress and a pitcher and colander for ingress. Then I hose out my Mashing Tun, remove the false bottom, and dump the wort back into it for boiling. Basically its the Rube Goldberg of three tier systems but it allows me to do everything except the boil for 5 gallon all grain batches in my kitchen. Efficiency could probably be improved but the beer tastes great so I don't really mind.

 

[ghohn]

I measure the amount of water I need with kegs. For example, I need about 2.75 kegs of water to make 2 kegs of beer (losses due to grain and hop absorption, boil evaporation, replenishing my yeast starters). It might seem strange to measure water with kegs but, to me, it makes perfect sense. Kegs are what I'm trying to fill at the end of the process.

 

[eric19312]

I have sight glasses on my hot liquor tank and brew kettle. Gravity from HLT to MLT. Pump from MLT to BK. I use buckets to fill the HLT but am figuring out a way to run a food grade hose over there.

I start with my strike water in the HLT. Use the sight glass to send measured quantity to the MLT. Then refill the HLT.

I fly sparge to volume target (sight glass on the brew kettle). Usually 13-14 gallons depending on quantity of hops and intended length of boil.

 

[kombat]

For me, it depends whether I plan on batch sparging, or fly sparging the batch I'm brewing that day.

If I'm batch sparging, then I take my old aluminum pot that came with my turkey fryer, and I add my brewing water, measuring it with a wooden dowel with notches cut into it for each gallon (obviously specific to that pot). I heat it up on the burner, on my garage floor, then dump it into my cooler mash tun (set on a table), then dough-in. Then I repeat this and measure out my sparge water (using the same pot and dowel), and heat it up while mashing. This is fine for 5 gallon batches, but too heavy for 10 gallon batches. For 10 gallon batches, I must fly sparge, as described in the next paragraph.

If I'm fly-sparging, then I have a separate 15-gallon pot on a separate burner, set up on a table in my garage. The pot has gallon markings factory etched into it. I fill it all the way up, to the 15-gallon mark, then light the burner and heat up my strike water. I set my cooler mash tun on the table next to it. The pot is elevated above the mash tun, because it's sitting on the burner. Thus, I can gravity-feed from the HLT into the cooler mash tun. I connect some high-temperature silicone tubing to the HLT's outlet barb, then transfer the prescribed amount of strike water into the cooler mash tun, using the volume markings etched in the HLT. Knowing I started at 15 gallons, I simply subtract however much I'm supposed to dough-in with, and drain the HLT until it gets down to that level.

While mashing, I top the HLT back up and heat it up again. I put my kettle on the burner on the floor, then drain from my mash tun (elevated above the kettle, since it's sitting on the table) into the kettle, while fly-sparging from the HLT (which is on a burner on the table, next to the mash tun, and thus elevated above it). I guess you'd call this a makeshift 3-tier system.

My boil kettle has volume markings etched into it, so once I've collected enough wort, I simply stop fly sparging. Whatever hot water is left in the HLT gets used for cleaning.

 

[rodwha]

I bought a one gallon pitcher. I used it to fill my fermentation buckets and used a permanent marker to mark the levels. The ones premarked by MoreBeer are not accurate (about 1/2 gal short).

I had been pouring from my brew pot that my strike and sparge water was prepared and heated in but I always spilled. Now I use an old siphon hose to fill a bucket to the proper level. Not 100% accurate but close enough.

And this keeps me from dealing with 6.75 gals of water and a large pot, as well as reduces the heat lost by doing it one gallon at a time.

 

[Natdavis777]

My current setup has a site glass on my BK (which does all the heating for the brewday) and water is moved via a pump.

On my older setups, pot/cooler, and tier'd keggle, I used a graduated bucket from Lowes for my measuring, and gravity to transfer. Moving 7-9 gal of 170F water isnt my strong suit.


Here's an pic of when I gravity fed
View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1462935984.257699.jpg

Edit: This was a double brew day so that kettle boiling on the right is a completely different brew