[tubercle]

All this scribing, dremeling, bolting, slicing, diceing, buying stuff. All I did was pour in a gallon of water, put my wood mash paddel in and pull it out, notched the wet/dry line with my pocket knife, and made 1/2 & 1/4 notches, repeat up to 6 gallons. 3 minutes and free since I already had the mash paddle and pocket knife.

 But that's just me...

A pocket knife...that's awfully fancy. You could have used your teeth instead : )

I cut my notches with my Hatorri Hanzo.  "Haiyah!"

Barlow

[malzig]

All this scribing, dremeling, bolting, slicing, diceing, buying stuff. All I did was pour in a gallon of water, put my wood mash paddel in and pull it out, notched the wet/dry line with my pocket knife, and made 1/2 & 1/4 notches, repeat up to 6 gallons. 3 minutes and free since I already had the mash paddle and pocket knife.

 But that's just me...

I like to take a volume reading at the end of my boil.  I don't like the idea of sticking a mash paddle into my sanitary wort after it's been in the bacteria-laden mash.

[anday6]

If you have a separate spoon or use your mash paddle to stir the boil (and leave it in there long enough) it should be well enough sanitized.

[bo]

My mash paddle is wood. I really wouldn't want to stick that in my wort.

[anday6]

OK, you might be right there.  I have a plastic mash paddle and a stainless spoon, so I can always trust that after sanitizing it and boiling it.

[bo]

I agree with a plastic mash paddle as a good measuring device.

The fact is, any kind of calibrated dip stick is better than a breakable, leakable sight glass, in my opinion.

[seajellie]

I am getting paranoid that in five pages of discussion, nobody has mentioned my technique - a stainless steel tape measure. It's so obvious that it must be wrong somehow....

I don't often measure after KO, but if I do, do so before chilling and I spray it with star san.

Also, this tape measure is dedicated to brewing.

[bo]

I am getting paranoid that in five pages of discussion, nobody has mentioned my technique - a stainless steel tape measure. It's so obvious that it must be wrong somehow....

I don't often measure after KO, but if I do, do so before chilling and I spray it with star san.

Also, this tape measure is dedicated to brewing.

A tape measure is a very good idea, but I might opt for a steel or aluminum yard stick, simply because of the sticky wort being sucked back into the tape recoil.

[tygo]

I use a tape measure as well.  I just give it a quick rinse and wipe off after each dip and let it dry before it gets rolled back up.

[BP79]

Rather than scratch lines into kettles and MT and have sharpie ink all over the place, I just use a stainless steel ruler:

My 52 quart (13 gallon) MT is 12 1/4" tall.  Keeping things really simple, 13 gallons / 12.25 = 1" per gallon (15/16 if you have OCD).  Same for my 8G kettle: 13" tall / 8 gallons = 1 5/8" per gallon.

By ruler I meant tape measure.  I'm not feeling any love.

[scrap iron]

I didn't see what I use, so here is my 2 cents. My Brewery is made from Keggles, I took the SS spear,dip tube, or whatever it's called and notched it with a new hack saw blade.I use a false bottom in the BK, after setting it up I added water 1 gal at a time and held my thumb at the water level then notched.

[seajellie]

By ruler I meant tape measure.  I'm not feeling any love.

Doh! Sorry BP79, maybe OCD was kicking in and I didn't see your post. M-Th is always a challenge, because those are my alcohol-free days.

This thread inspired me to go buy a 3' SS yard stick for four bucks, which is stouter than a tape measure and easier to clean.

[BP79]

No worries, I don't remember much from my undergrad days, but I do remember my favorite biomechanics prof repeatedly telling me students often over-complicate things. 

[veldy]

Question for the forum:

I am a relatively new all grain brewer and to this point I have been "eyeballing" volumes in my keggle.  Naturally, this has given me mixed result so I want to create i measuring stick taht I can notch/mark at different volumes.  I found a metal rod in my basement that would be perfect for this if I cleaned it up.  It appears to be some sort of generic steel. 

The question is if this metal would have any noticable effect on the beer.  I know its probably not the ideal material, but since it would not contact the wort for very long, would I be OK? 

Thanks

You generally don't want exposed iron, so if you are using an iron or steel (stainless is fine) rod then I would avoid it. 

My solution is simple; I use a long handle plastic spoon and I just drew graduation marks on it with a marker at half gallon increments.  Every ten or fifteen brews I will darken the marks.

Veldy

[veldy]

I use a typical brewing plastic spoon and marked water levels with a sharpie!

http://www.monsterbrew.com/Prod_PlasticSpoon.cfm

+1

Veldy