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Hi Guys,

Ok, if some of you remember, I have 2 75L fermenters but they had a "varnish" type smell to them. I have taken your advice and soaked them in bleach for 1 week and the smell has gone and no left over bleach smell either. WOOO HOOOO

Ok, now the problem I have is the drum are not labeled apart from say that they are 75L. Is there a simple way to work out where 23L, 46L etc is so that I can mark it on the drums.

I know I could just fill up a 5L container and keep going that way and mark every 5/10 litres,

But just wanted to know if there was a simple mathimatical way to do it?

Cheers
Mick

Weigh the fermenter

1L water = 1Kg (at sea level and at 25C)

Get hose, get bathroom scales

Put fermenter on scales

fill until 23Kg + Fermenter weight.

Mark with pen

Repeat with the next measurement required.

Water the plants

not as accurate, but not far off, but no water waste:

measure the diametre of the barrel (not from the bottom, but where the sides are straight) - call this measurement d
A is area of a cross section of the barrel
h is the hight from base

A = (d/2)*(d/2)*3.14 (from pi*r^2)

V= A*h
assuming you want a mark at 23Lt, V=23,000mL

so the hight from the base that you mark 23Lt is
h=23,000/A

continue for 46 or what ever.

EDIT: i checked it on my coopers fermentor, and was off by 10% (ie i was about 2cm short)

Why not just do a 65L batch?

Cheers,
Greg

gregb wrote:Why not just do a 65L batch?

Cheers,
Greg

That is the eventual plan, but just a bit short on bottles at the moment - give me a couple of weeks

Gregb is on the money. You have 75L fermenters so why try and put small amounts in there when you could do a 65L brew. So easiest way then is to fill it up with water and pour out 10L and mark it so you have enough head space for the krausen. I would love a huge fermenter to make bulk quantities of beer but i would prob buy kegs first cos a 65L brew = 85 odd tallies!

65L is a 3 can brew plus 4 odd kgs of malt/dex.

Cheers
DrSmurto

Um, it still seems easier just to get a 5 litre jug and pour/mark 15 times. 1 minute each time = d2 x 4x - by4 = 15 minutes work.

If I did a 23 or 46L brew - do you guys think the headroom in the fermenter will cause a problem

the old man thinks that this will be the case,

The yeast will use all the oxygen in the wort, dissolved or not to divide and conquer then once its all gone, start converting sugar into our friend, ethanol. So by that rationale you will end up with more yeast which isnt a bad thing.

I would still be more tempted to do a triple brew ie 60-65L more so cos you can rather than worrying about headspace.... but thats just my misinformed opinion

Only problem being, I wouldn`t fancy moving 65 litres of beer in a fermenter from point A to point B too often. Bit of weight there, specially if there`s any lifting up involved in your brewing setup.

I go with Pale_Ale. 1 litre water is 1 kg dead weight @ sea level & @ 25degC. Any temp & elevation variations will have minimal effect in a 70L drum.

My main issue would be with bottling a 65L (69L?) brew. Would suggest a couple or three of savvy assistants rather than attempting to do it solo.

Why dont you just get a gradualated measuring jug, in one of these 1L = 1L, they cost about $5-6 at most supermarkets

pacman wrote:I go with Pale_Ale. 1 litre water is 1 kg dead weight @ sea level & @ 25degC. Any temp & elevation variations will have minimal effect in a 70L drum.

My main issue would be with bottling a 65L (69L?) brew. Would suggest a couple or three of savvy assistants rather than attempting to do it solo.

But you shouldn`t need more than 1 assistant, should you? One bottles, one assistant caps. You can only cap them as fast as 1 person fills them from 1 fermenter. Just a thought.