# Measurements of honey



## reeny (Sep 14, 2012)

An anyone help me with measurements of honey?? I need to give 1 lb of honey to a friend for a honey ale. How much in cups is one lb of honey?


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## fatbloke (Sep 15, 2012)

reeny said:


> An anyone help me with measurements of honey?? I need to give 1 lb of honey to a friend for a honey ale. How much in cups is one lb of honey?


Don't know. Just that here, honey is usually sold in 1lb/454g jars, 340g/12oz jars routinely. Though if it's been packed elsewhere in the EU, it's often in 500g jars.

Cups are more about volume than weight, hence it would be easiest to put a container on a digital scale, then "zero" the scale and keep adding tablespoons from a larger container until either the 1lb or 454 g mark are hit.......


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## reeny (Sep 15, 2012)

Thank you that helps


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## saramc (Sep 15, 2012)

_Just checked a container of commercial honey and 1 tbsp=21 grams._
_If there are 454gm/pound, this equals 22 tbsp to equal 1 pound honey and you would need 1.375 cups for one pound of honey. I would think 1.5 cups would be safe and hopefully he can weigh it before he adds it._

_THOUGH it really does depend on each particular honey since the amount of water can vary from honey to honey, harvest to harvest._


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## fatbloke (Sep 16, 2012)

saramc said:


> _Just checked a container of commercial honey and 1 tbsp=21 grams._
> _If there are 454gm/pound, this equals 22 tbsp to equal 1 pound honey and you would need 1.375 cups for one pound of honey. I would think 1.5 cups would be safe and hopefully he can weigh it before he adds it._
> 
> _THOUGH it really does depend on each particular honey since the amount of water can vary from honey to honey, harvest to harvest._


He he! brilliant. Another excellent (and more local) answer.

Cups seem to be an "American thing". Tsp/tbsp etc are used for small measurements in recipes (cooking/brewing/etc etc) here, but rather than volumetric measures for dry goods it's usually weight, whether in grammes/kilo's or lb's and oz's. Liquids are also pints/litres/fluid oz's etc, or less regularly, quoted in weights.


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## J-Gee (Sep 17, 2012)

I actually sought out a golden rod honey recently. I will use part of it on a cyser this fall.


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## saramc (Sep 22, 2012)

fatbloke said:


> He he! brilliant. Another excellent (and more local) answer.
> 
> Cups seem to be an "American thing". Tsp/tbsp etc are used for small measurements in recipes (cooking/brewing/etc etc) here, but rather than volumetric measures for dry goods it's usually weight, whether in grammes/kilo's or lb's and oz's. Liquids are also pints/litres/fluid oz's etc, or less regularly, quoted in weights.


 
We do not use the metric system universally in the U.S.....and since I noted we had one response from the U.K. I threw in the gram/tbsp part and the # of grams per pound since I knew that metric is used in U.K. But many of the recipes we share on this forum and others list metric measurements. Just have to learn to adjust.


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## fatbloke (Sep 24, 2012)

saramc said:


> We do not use the metric system universally in the U.S.....and since I noted we had one response from the U.K. I threw in the gram/tbsp part and the # of grams per pound since I knew that metric is used in U.K. But many of the recipes we share on this forum and others list metric measurements. Just have to learn to adjust.


Ah, well that's not entirely correct. I was brought up with pounds and ounces mainly, they were working on converting to metric.

Yet there are a few legal exclusions as well. Loose food (like vegetables etc) are available in both, as long as the price per lb and per kg are shown. Beer is still sold in pints, and distance is still quoted in miles - there's a few more as well.

hence those of about my age (late 40's) will pretty much be happy with both.

The grammes per tsp etc is a little different, because tsp/tbsp etc are volumetric, like "cups" used in baking in the US i.e. a "cup" of flour will weigh considerably less than a "cup" of a liquid ingredient, so there are a few accepted equivalents that measure using old names with up to date metric quantity i.e. 1 tsp is 5mls, a tbsp is 15mls - the convenience of metric is that it's also accepted that 5mls will weigh 5 grammes etc etc - sure that's not completely accurate but close enough to be of use.

But it's also why some across your side of the point are amazed at the petrol/gas prices. here it's quoted in litres rather than like the US still quoting in gallons (hence it's mucho dinaro, currently about £1.40 per litre/$2.26 per litre or $8.54 per US gallon).


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## saramc (Sep 28, 2012)

fatbloke said:


> Ah, well that's not entirely correct. I was brought up with pounds and ounces mainly, they were working on converting to metric.
> 
> Yet there are a few legal exclusions as well. Loose food (like vegetables etc) are available in both, as long as the price per lb and per kg are shown. Beer is still sold in pints, and distance is still quoted in miles - there's a few more as well.
> 
> ...


 
I use metric a lot in my work (medical based)--so I am always flipping back and forth. School books, well at least at the local schools in my area, teach that UK is metric based--not saying other system of measurement is not also used. But I thought the 5ml=5gm was only used if working with water, no other material?


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## VineSwinger (Oct 1, 2012)

From my experiences with salts/sugars/preservatives, recipes will specify weight measurements because of varying densities, moisture content/viscosity and other factors. Volumetric measures, for this very reason are considered unreliable for certain applications.


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## BernardSmith (Oct 19, 2012)

*I was born and raised in scotland...*



fatbloke said:


> Ah, well that's not entirely correct. I was brought up with pounds and ounces mainly, they were working on converting to metric.
> 
> Yet there are a few legal exclusions as well. Loose food (like vegetables etc) are available in both, as long as the price per lb and per kg are shown. Beer is still sold in pints, and distance is still quoted in miles - there's a few more as well.
> 
> ...


But you should be slightly less amazed at gas prices. A British gallon is larger than the US gallon. A US gallon is 3.78 L but a British gallon is 4.54L... That means a pint of Old Peculier here in the US of A is tiny compared to a pint in Glasgow...


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## fatbloke (Oct 20, 2012)

BernardSmith said:


> But you should be slightly less amazed at gas prices. A British gallon is larger than the US gallon. A US gallon is 3.78 L but a British gallon is 4.54L... That means a pint of Old Peculier here in the US of A is tiny compared to a pint in Glasgow...


There is some commonality, but there's also differences. For example, the first time I made a gallon batch of JAO, I automatically made it to 4.55 litres/1 imp gallon. I'm glad I did make that initial error as it turned out well, but probably a bit less sweet than if I'd remembered the difference between a US and Imperial gallon.

It's also why it's worth knowing, so that when making batches of mead that are from a recipe that quotes gravity rather than weights etc, it can be mixed with a little care and still end up with a batch that is closer to what would be "correct" by the author of the recipe.

The commonality being that gravity measurements do seem to be the same, i.e. for the amount of dissolved sugars in a batch.

The use of metric measurements is handy though, because 1 litre is the same wherever you are, plus a half litre measure of beer is only 68mls short of a pint (here anyway). 

When the trading standards people are testing for "short measures", they have kit calibrated into Imp pints, but the tolerances allowed are measured in millilitres. From memory, a pub only gets 1 chance of remedying short measures if they're caught, if they don't they get busted and fined (I believe it puts their license to sell alcohol in jeopardy as well).


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