1st time all-grain lessons learned

Here is a video which details how to etch marks in your brew kettle.

Cheers!

 

That's probably a more permanent and accurate way to determine how much liquid is in the kettle, but all I do is stick my spoon down the side of the kettle until it just touches the liquid, and then use my thumb to mark the spot on the spoon where it meets the top of the kettle. By measuring that marked length, I know from a pre-determined chart how much liquid that I have at that depth. Oh, I could use a tape measure to directly measure down to the liquid level, but I look at that as a bit riskier for sanitation.

 

That's great feedback for a lot of noobies, so thanks for posting the info. Regardless of the issues that you faced, you're still going to have beer, and it will probably be a good one.

 

I'm not sure on how you plan to graduate your kettle. I would recommend the etching method JH referenced, or installing a sight glass. Although I have not done all grain brewing myself, It sounds like your guess is correct. Grains do absorb a lot of water (and they need to for the sugar conversions). If you don't account for this loss, you will come up significantly short. I would suggest using a program to help you out. Vikeman has a great spreadsheet called brew cipher(free). Another program a lot of people use is called beer smith (not free)

 

I just started reading that section. I've pretty much read everything else in the book. John Palmer goes pretty big into the science, even describing the reactions without explaining them. And even that is a little over the top for most home brewers. BUT, that does give good insight into how the beer making process works. Which will make you a better brewer in the end.

In addition to playing with brew cipher (maybe enter the figures from the beer you made and see how much water you needed to start with), also consider you will have water loss from other factors, and everyone's system is a bit different. Others will have more or less water loss due to other factors. i.e.- a low output burner will lose more water due to evaporation because it takes longer to get to a boil. A more vigorous moil will lose more water to steam than a less vigorous boil. Since this is your first all grain batch, you will only make better beer from this point forward as you get used to your system.

 

The 'conversion' chart will depend on the diameter of your boil kettle, so you'll have to create your own chart by adding a gallon at a time to your kettle and then measuring the distance to the top of the pot. It's not precise with only a gallon increment, but you can wiggle the estimate of liquid amount if your measurement is somewhere between your chart measurements. I try to be a little short on what liquid I keep because I can make up any difference when adding water to my priming sugar that will make up any shortfall.

I don't use a refractometer, thus I don't have an opinion, but that tool gets discussed on a regular basis in this forum and I read pros and cons about its use vs. cost and accuracy. Do a search of this forum using that word and you'll get a good number of opinions.

 

You can mark off volume on a cheap mash paddle as well

 

Exactly what I did - I just etched lines into my paddles with a box cutter and dip it into the kettle to measure. Quick and easy.

 

I use a dowel rod with etches in it. I actually filled up my brew kettle one gallon at a time on my cleaning day. Tedious, but accurate. Not very good for overall sanitation (wood harboring bacteria, etc) So to combat that, I took the liquid down post of a commercial keg (I made a HLT out of it.), and etched that. Now I have a SS tube that I can measure with. And it lives in the Sani bucket that is always ready to go on brew day.

 

The handle rivets on my 8 gal kettle and 3 rings on my keggles are the only reference points I need....after 100s of batches.