Volume by inches?

itinerantbrewer

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How about adding a feature that allows the required water volumes to also be displayed in inches?

I do BIAB batches in a big kettle and don't want an additional "thing", like a sightglass, to get in the way. Thus, I've been measuring volumes in inches with a nice SS yardstick. When the mash step says the recipe calls for 15.5 gallons, it would show as "start with 15.5 gallons (xxqts, xx.x inches, xx centimeters)". This could be pulled from your equipment profile if you could enter kettle volume and height. Other (obviously inferior!) BIAB calculators do this (eg priceless brewing).
 
Just out of curiosity, why don't you mark the volume measurements on your SS yardstick?
 
How about adding a feature that allows the required water volumes to also be displayed in inches?

I do BIAB batches in a big kettle and don't want an additional "thing", like a sightglass, to get in the way. Thus, I've been measuring volumes in inches with a nice SS yardstick. When the mash step says the recipe calls for 15.5 gallons, it would show as "start with 15.5 gallons (xxqts, xx.x inches, xx centimeters)". This could be pulled from your equipment profile if you could enter kettle volume and height. Other (obviously inferior!) BIAB calculators do this (eg priceless brewing).
it's a good idea but, but all kettles are slightly different. wider kettles would show a volume in less height than a taller skinnier kettle.
 
it's a good idea but, but all kettles are slightly different. wider kettles would show a volume in less height than a taller skinnier kettle.

I think it should be standard as long as it pulls from your specific kettle specs. there's some formula for a cylinder's volume determined by diameter and height. or do you mean our kettles aren't perfect cylinders? That's probably true but I'd think it'd be minor. e-brewers also lose a bit depending on element size (bigger=less volume)
 
yep, that works too. But the "volume in inches" is stored in the cloud for ever while I might lose my custom yardstick!
there's a thread on here somewhere where someone etched markings onto their kettle directly. they may have accidentally did them backwards, but other than that it seemed to work fine.
Then you don't need a cloud or a stick!
 
How about adding a feature that allows the required water volumes to also be displayed in inches?

I do BIAB batches in a big kettle and don't want an additional "thing", like a sightglass, to get in the way. Thus, I've been measuring volumes in inches with a nice SS yardstick. When the mash step says the recipe calls for 15.5 gallons, it would show as "start with 15.5 gallons (xxqts, xx.x inches, xx centimeters)". This could be pulled from your equipment profile if you could enter kettle volume and height. Other (obviously inferior!) BIAB calculators do this (eg priceless brewing).
Agreed. Volume in inches doesn't make sense to my engineering brain, although I think I know what you mean. The biggest reason is that you have to calibrate the sight glass to the pot. The same thing holds true if you create a dipstick, my suggested solution to your problem. You can use the formula or you can pour measured volumes into the pot and mark it (actually, I'd measure the first due to the join of the pot and the base, then use Chico's formula for the rest of the marks). I did the etching thing, too, then went back to the dipstick. Easier to see. And yes, kettles aren't perfect cylinders (say it ain't so!), but they're close enough that the variation doesn't matter, again, depending on departures from cylindrical shape.

The formula, v=p*r^2*h, is correct. It gives you cubic whatever units you're using. If you're metric, a thousand CC is a liter. If English, a gallon is 231 cubic inches (where did they get that number?). You're interested in height, so h=v/(pi*r^2). Be careful to use the same units for each.
 
I think I requested the same thing several years ago when I was doing BIAB. I always used priceless brewing calculator and it worked like a champ. I wouldn't think it would be hard to implement the same here. The water volume measurement discussion pops up here often enough to warrant said feature imo.
 
And remember heat shrinkage! I notched my sight glass 21 lt mark with IC in but I did it cold. And that can trick you thinking you're on target only to cool wort and find you've lost volume through shrinkage...:confused:
 
yep, that works too. But the "volume in inches" is stored in the cloud for ever while I might lose my custom yardstick!
Might be implemented as a profile thing: You provide the diameter of the kettle (assumed cylindrical) in inches/cm and the depth of liquid in inches/cm, the software provides the volume... Maybe as a calculator, enter diameter, depth and units of measure and get a result. But it's just as easy to punch π*(d/2)^2*h/231 into a hand calculator or a spreadsheet for me to get gallons (if you work in CM, divide by 1000 to get liters. God I love metric units!).
 
I notched my sight glass 21 lt mark with IC in but I did it cold. And that can trick you thinking you're on target only to cool wort and find you've lost volume through shrinkage..
The temperature compensation in BF is useful there, if the volume graduations are calibrated to a known temperature. There are still measurement problems when there's a coil in the wort. I'd like to see that variable in the equipment profile. Otherwise you need a second set of marks for measuring volume with an immersion chiller
 
The temperature compensation in BF is useful there, if the volume graduations are calibrated to a known temperature. There are still measurement problems when there's a coil in the wort. I'd like to see that variable in the equipment profile. Otherwise you need a second set of marks for measuring volume with an immersion chiller
Yep when taking volume reading depending how big the IC is I found it'll displace a fair bit of want and skew readings by over a litre and then there is wort shrinkage (gotta get that checked out) from cooling.
 
I just measured the displacement of my chiller so I can do a manual calculation to watch volume.
 
Also, the chiller is effectively a cylinder as well, same formula applies, pi*r^2*length. Subtract that from the volume. It won't be much.
 
Also, the chiller is effectively a cylinder as well, same formula applies, pi*r^2*length. Subtract that from the volume. It won't be much.
Mine was 0.3 gallons, so not much, but beats pulling the chiller out to check kettle volume
 

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