Weighing grain?

[BillyBrewer]

What a faff! We buy scales, weigh it out, bit by bit, spill it all over the place etc. Well I just put the grain for tomorrows brew in a fermenting bin, with liter graduations and had my eureka moment: Wouldn't it be a hell of a lot easier to measure our grain by volume, rather than weight?

[erebus]

Ey gads I think we have an American in a mindst!

Well with respect to cooking rather than brewing. Weight is better for me.
I mean the 1 cup of flour = x grams, but 1 cup of butter != x grams.

I haven't tested this, but I'd guess their is a minute difference between the weight of pale malt and say crystal. So, again, 1 cup of pale malt wouldn't be the same weight as 1 cup of crystal. Considering the quantities we are dealing with (kilograms/pounds), this small difference could make a big difference in volume.

Exactly what do people who measure by volume do when a recipe calls for 0.345 cups of X?

What exactly is the next step up from a standard volume measurement. I mean we have teaspoons, tablespoon, (desert spoons?), cups... then what?

[Aleman]

Thats the way grain was measured in the past a bushel is a unit of volume measurement, then you have quarters (of a bushel). Its only recently(200 years or so) that the weight equivalent of a bushel has been standardised.

A litre of malt is around 500g IIRC Or nearabouts. which given the inaccuracies we have in our small quantities is close enough

[BillyBrewer]

Ey gads I think we have an American in a mindst!

How dare you sir! Americans have quarts and carboys, not liters and fermenting bins. And I doubt they use the slang 'faff', so I don't know why your casting this aspertion

[erebus]

How dare you sir!

Sorry you can't be too careful, these American's are cunning blighters. A few episodes of Fawlty Towers and they all bloody this and bleedin that.

Anyway, as Aleman pointed out, considering the quantities that we are dealing with maybe the difference in weight between various grains won't present a problem. Best idea? Next time you weight out some grains see what volume they are. Given my current setup I know that my plastic bowl holds about 2Kg, but that is give or take 100gm depending on how full it is.
100gms could make a difference when it comes to a brew.

[Scroogemonster]

BillyBrewer wrote:

Americans have quarts and carboys, not liters and fermenting bins.

I thought we had litres in blighty not liters

[BillyBrewer]

litres in blighty not liters

[mysterio]

Look at Seveneer's website, if I remember right he's got a weighing scale with a hook on it.

http://www.philrobins.org.uk/

Under 'miscellaneous'.

[Seveneer]

I also have a scoop that holds pretty much a kilo for when I can't be *rsed to find my scales

/Phil.

[CarpHunter]

For the lager amounts of grain I have a set of digital fishing scales hanging from the garage ceiling that are calibrated to zero when I hang a fermenting bucket from them then I just pour the grain from the sack and watch the scale, no messing no spillage.

[des]

I have a plastic grist bucket that I marked each time I weighed out a new amount, I have found the marks to be consistent.

[ColinKeb]

I have a nice homebrew shop owner who weighs it into seperate bags for me according to what I want , just pour it straight in

[BarnsleyBrewer]

My chunky dimpled pint glass holds 500grms.

BB