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Marking volume on Brew Kettle

Slobrew

Master Brewer
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I have a stainless steel brew kettle that does not have any markings for determining volume in the kettle. I've made a dip stick out of stainless BBQ skewers. I lay one across the kettle and hang the second one off the first one. Used a dremel tool to notch the "dipstick" so I can read the volume. This works but is a PITA.  I'm guessing that I could just scribe marks on the kettle itself, but before I cut into my expensive kettle, I was wondering how you guys have marked your kettle. Thanks
 
That sounds doable but complicated.
I have a large plastic stir stick that I marked with permanent marker for each gallon.
Pour in successive gallons, note with your thumbnail, put a line on it with the marker.
 
You can check this topic out:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/how-add-permanent-volume-markings-kettle-illustrated-463099/
 
Thanks for the replys.

KernelCrush. Yes, I do have a ball valve on my kettle.

RickS. That is a cool idea, thanks for the link.
 
Yes, I do have a ball valve on my kettle.

The acid etch method is a lot more eloquent, I did mine freestyle with an engraving tool.  Dremel sells a tip for engraving.  Start by weighing out 8.34 lb of water = 1 gallon.  You can do the math to get to 1/2 gallon or quarts for more precision. I only did this at my normal pre and post boil volume gallons marks.    Mark your container at its exact fill level of 1 gallon with a piece of waterproof bandage tape or whatever. Make sure your kettle is exactly level.  Count how many times you add  this exact volume to your kettle till full.  Use same marked container to drain 1 exact gallon at a time from the kettle.  Stick a piece of tape to the kettle at the now drained fill level each time you remove 1 gallon.  repeat till empty. I redid before engraving it to make sure I wasn't distracted the first time.  The only advantage to draining and marking is you don't have to stand around waiting for the kettle to stop sloshing back and forth.  I put my numbers upside down above each fill mark.
 
You want to do all your measuring at just under boiling.  At 210F your first gallon weight is 8 lb.
 
I have a similar method but it only works because my 20 gallon posts are 20 inches tall and my 25 gallon pot is 25 inches tall. I just use a tape measure and measure how many inches it is from the top. To make it easy I made 1 inch marks on a spoon handle. Rather than stick it down in the beer or water I just measure the distance from the top. You could do this as well but you may not be at 1 inch per gallon. It may be 2 or 3 inches per gallon. Either way it works and you don't have to dip.
 
RickS said:
You can check this topic out:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/how-add-permanent-volume-markings-kettle-illustrated-463099/

Saw this in a beer mag recently - clever way. Not tried it yet...im just using a ss ruler which works okay for now.
 
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