I'm a little confused when weighing salts. I read Gypsum is 4 grams per teaspoon but when i weigh a tsp the scale only says 1 gram. I even pack the gypsum in the spoon and scrap the top to make it even. Everything else on the scale works perfect. I ordered a gram scale to double check.
Teaspoons are a bad way to "weigh" anything, but even so, a teaspoon of gypsum would be a lot heavier than a gram. You say everything else on the scale works perfect. How do you know that? It sounds to me like it's very inaccurate for lower masses. What kind of scale is it?
You can buy a digital reloading scale that measures in grains and grams down to 1/1000 and even come with calibration weights. I use this one https://smile.amazon.com/Hornady-El...pID=41SAPgy-qtL&preST=_SY300_QL70_&dpSrc=srch
1 level 1/4 teaspoon of gypsum is about 1 gram. So yes, 1 teaspoon should be 4 grams. Also, 1 heaping 1/4 teaspoon is 1 gram of CaCl2. I agree weighing on a scale is more accurate, but this will get you close enough and with water chemistry that is really all you need.
It's a escali scale. I put a new package of hops on it and it was fine. @MarkGP-I'll check that out if this new scale doesn't work.
exact one I have, works great. You need something that measures down this low in order to be accurate for minute salt additions. I had to use my larger scale the other day when i was trying to add a certain number of grams to an amount that was heavier than what my small scale would measure and it was horrible. It would read 5g, then all of a sudden jump to 8. It's just not accurate enough at small increments.
The problem is that there could be a wide range of masses for various packages of hops. Lets say your scale's error was a constant -3 grams. 4 grams of gypsum would read 1 gram. A slightly overfilled "one ounce" bag of hops might read exactly one ounce. (And don't forget that the bag itself has mass, too.) Which model of escali scale do you have? It may not be accurate for such small masses. Or if it is, it may just need to be calibrated.
Two of my last three packets of hops, listed as 2 oz, weighed 2.4 and 2.6 ounces (one was spot on). You can find the scale link'ed to above from several vendors on Amazon . . . usually starting around 10 bucks without a calibration weight. To calibrate, a US nickel weighs 5 grams, a US penny (post-1983) weighs 2.5 grams. You really do want to splurge on a digital scale which can also be used for grain additions under a kilo. Agree that precision to a tenth of a gram is overkill for treating water, but for the price of a sawbuck you're home free.
I've used this one for years now and have been very happy with it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0012LOQUQ/ref=psdcmw_678508011_t2_B000O37TDO
Got the new scale and both weighed close. Went and got a metal tsp and it weighed 2.7 grams so i guess the plastic tsp was no good.I'll just weigh it with the scale. tks
