Copper Calibration

[emmanuales]

Hi there,

I've recently taken over as the brewer at a small independent brewery in the U.K and I'm having some copper calibration issues.

The copper itself has wooden cladding and, in marker pen, has two different sets of volume markings on the side and a makeshift sight glass.

Due to some off gravity readings as a result of using these markings I'm convinced they are wrong. I have no way of telling how much the copper, a cylinder with a concaved bottom, holds in total, let alone the correct incriminates up the side.

How should I calibrate this vessel to give me accurate measurements?


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[Todd Hicks]

http://www.samuelpvg.com/en/ToolBox/Pages/Head-Volume-Calculator.aspx

Divide liquid volume by height and determine your points to mark.

[Mtnmann]

We first calibrated a 5 gallon bucket. Then began pouring 5 gals at a time into our vessel and marking the sight glass as we went. Next best option is to buy a water meter, then fill and mark.

mtn

[rdcpro]

Don't forget, there could be a significant difference in volume depending on the temperature of the water. So if you're using cold water to calibrate, you'll be off when you fill it with hot sweet wort. In my small HLT, I have markings on one side for cold water, on the other are markings for hot.

Regards,
Mike Sharp

[wailingguitar]

I just ran 1bbl at a time of hot liquor into the kettle, marking a wooden stick with 1bbl increment. Use that dip stick as a volume meter.

[mmussen]

To calibrate I used a flowmeter I borrowed from another local brewery and filled the copper with hot water 1/2 bbl at at time. I actually used a long copper pipe that would rest on the bottom of the kettle as my marker and etched the pipe at every 1/2 bbl.

A bucket can work, but depending on the size of your copper that may take quite some time. Also if your HLT has volume measurements, and you feel those are accurate you can use those to determine how much water your putting in the copper.

Total volume is pretty easy to get a good estimate from the dimensions, but with the curved bottom it won't really help you figure out where set volumes are.

[emmanuales]

I actually did measure out the copper litre by litre using a brew bucket and measuring jug, but we were getting discrepancies between the volume going in to the fermenter out of the copper, and the volume we finally put into casks.

For example, once is remeasured, I'd take out "10BBL" (for example), yet only end up with around 32 x 9G casks rather than 40.

Any ideas? I wondered whether different yeast strains had anything to do with it (S04 and US05). How much do you loose in fermentation generally (not including the yeast cake in the bottom).


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[wailingguitar]

I actually did measure out the copper litre by litre using a brew bucket and measuring jug, but we were getting discrepancies between the volume going in to the fermenter out of the copper, and the volume we finally put into casks.

For example, once is remeasured, I'd take out "10BBL" (for example), yet only end up with around 32 x 9G casks rather than 40.

Any ideas? I wondered whether different yeast strains had anything to do with it (S04 and US05). How much do you loose in fermentation generally (not including the yeast cake in the bottom).


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So you are yielding 288 gallons, post fermentation, from a 10bbl batch? That's like 92-93%, most people would be pretty happy with that.

[mmussen]

In my experience when brewing hoppy beers I need about 13 bbl in the kettle to get 10 bbl of finished beer. Between evaporation, trub loss in the kettle, the yeast cake, losses in transferring, and mucky beer that seems to work about right.

Your losses will vary greatly depending on the styles of beer you brew and your equipment. I would say the best thing to do is take some time to monitor volumes being lost/dumped at each point where you're loosing some volume and adjust your brew length to match that. I'm sure some others can give you their losses as well.

Cheers and good luck

[emmanuales]

Thanks. I'm happy with the yield, given that three years ago I was just a home brewer and now I run an established brewery. But just want to ensure that the equipment I'm brewing on - which is old and tired - is correctly calibrated.


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[arcangel]

Copper calibration

Hi Emmanuales,

Have you considered borrowing or hiring a set of platform scales?

I have no idea of the size of your copper, but were it 10bbl, or 1640 litres, even a 250kg capacity set would do the job. Of course, it depends on what accuracy you are looking for.

Best of luck!
Regards,
Michael George
mike@michaelgeorgeassociates.com