Metric Measurements

[Eddy Monsoon]

Newbie from Australia here

Looks like everyone's talking in the United States versions of Imperial measurements

Can I just check

# is US Pounds (Lbs) ? 454 grams ?

Ounce = 28.3 grams ?

Gallon is US Gallon ? 3.785 litres ?

Fluid Ounce is US fluid Ounce ? = 29.6 ml ?

 

[Rice_Guy]

You conversions are correct.
When we get lazy in the US we will finally start using metric.

and welcome to WineMakingTalk

 

[Eddy Monsoon]

You conversions are correct.
When we get lazy in the US we will finally start using metric.

and welcome to WineMakingTalk

I'm from England originally, I now speak 3 measurement languages

 

[winemanden]

You really ought to start using metric in USA. Cups are from pioneer days, not really accurate, pounds and ounces are OK but not so good as metric. After all, you use the Dollar which divides easily by 100, lots of countries now use it, even Australia. In the UK everything is decimalised now, even the Pound £.
The change from Imperial took a bit of getting used to, it's Pounds, Kilograms, and litres now. Easy!!!

 

[BernardSmith]

I guess amateur cooks use cups but wine makers use weight and imperial volume (though the US gallon is smaller than the imperial gallon and the pint must be smaller too if there are 8 pints in a US gallon) . Technically, the US converted to metric in 1988. Technically... but the federal government is as slow as molasses helping small businesses to implement this. But look at any can or box and you will see both imperial and metric weights and measures.

 

[CDrew]

I my professional life, everything is metric. So I think that way in winemaking too. Calculations are much easier and intuitive in metric units. My wife is a baker and basically only uses metric units. "Cups" are too inaccurate for her! She has distain for her sister who still uses volume measurements. Lol.

But-I really can't get away from gallons of gas or miles per hour. I'm not sure why. For awhile, the US put up highway signs with miles and kilometers. That was helpful and pointed to an upcoming transition. But more recently, there has been some serious back sliding, and the only road signs I see are in miles. Which makes you think only in miles. For a while in the 80s gasoline was sold by the liter. No more. I had a weird 90s Dodge minivan that had a mix of metric and standard bolts on the engine. It made no sense. Toyota on the other hand uses only about 5 bolt sizes and always the same 5, so way easier to work on.

But I agree, we would be far better off with an immediate and universal switch to metric units. In home winemaking it's a real mishmash with many ingredients dosed in grams per gallon. I guess that's our hybrid technology.

 

[BernardSmith]

And wasn't that "hybrid" model (more a chimera than a hybrid) that caused the Mars orbiter to smash into the red planet in 1999: The Europeans with whom we partnered used metric calculations and we used imperial and when push came to shove the two failed to communicate with each other or rather the two different system of units treated the other as the same... .

 

[Handy Turnip]

In the UK everything is decimalised now, even the Pound £.

Not quite sure that's entirely true - while the majority of things are metric, people in the UK are still more comfortable talking in miles for distance, feet and inches for height, and stones/lbs for weight.

 

[BernardSmith]

I've lived in the States for more than 30 years and I still think of weight in stones and hundred weights. (14 lbs is 1 stone, and so a person might be 10 stone, and a hundred weight is 8 stone , so 112 lbs, and, back in the day, bags of coal used to heat homes and which were carried by "coal men" up several floors of the tenements were 1 cwt).

 

[sour_grapes]

You really ought to start using metric in USA. Cups are from pioneer days, not really accurate, pounds and ounces are OK but not so good as metric. After all, you use the Dollar which divides easily by 100, lots of countries now use it, even Australia. In the UK everything is decimalised now, even the Pound £.
The change from Imperial took a bit of getting used to, it's Pounds, Kilograms, and litres now. Easy!!!

I doubt anyone disagrees with your points, so I am not sure why you are pushing it.

Cups are from pioneer days, not really accurate,

That makes no sense. It is like saying "Liters are from the days of the French revolution, not really accurate."

 

[user 36973]

You really ought to start using metric in USA

Convince the TTB. I have to report everything in gallons with them. All my measurements are in grams&liters but I convert to gallons for the monthly 5120.17

 

[Scooter68]

Guess we are still just those rebellious colonies at heart. TELL us to do something we probably won't do it. Ask us and we'll think about it, Talk down to us and - you can forget about it. That's kinda what happened at the Tea Party in Boston a few years back.

 

[Sailor323]

You really ought to start using metric in USA. Cups are from pioneer days, not really accurate, pounds and ounces are OK but not so good as metric. After all, you use the Dollar which divides easily by 100, lots of countries now use it, even Australia. In the UK everything is decimalised now, even the Pound £.
The change from Imperial took a bit of getting used to, it's Pounds, Kilograms, and litres now. Easy!!!

Yeah, metric is easier to use and often, but not always more accurate. Yes, most countries use the metric system but that's only officially. I cook a lot and use recipes from France, Spain, Italy and UK. Sometimes measurements are metric, often not. In France, where the metric system is reputed to have been devised, measurements are often in "verres" (glasses), "cas" (cuilleres à soupe). Drives me crazy! When baking bread, I always weigh ingredients and measure in grams

 

[masic2000]

In Canada we converted to the metric system in the seventies. We now use km, deg. C, ml, grams, etc. It takes a wile getting use to, especially when you grow up initially using the Imperial system. I use to convert back and forth between the two, but in hind sight it's probably not a good idea to do that since you'll be stuck doing that forever. Switch and never look back, before you know it you're all metric. !

 

[BernardSmith]

That makes no sense. It is like saying "Liters are from the days of the French revolution, not really accurate."

A "cup" is an accurate measure of ... a cup but recipes are really based on weight and standard liquid volumes. You cannot accurately determine the hydration of flour when baking bread by using a cup to measure the flour and a cup to measure the water. You can make a very accurate determination if your measurements are in grams and liters (or in ounces and pints... but then is the pint you are using British or US? ).

 

[Rice_Guy]

In the rice industry the weight per cup (cc volume per 100 grams) is a property we build on the product.
I would describe Wheat flour as “wild”. There is a measured property called absorption which has several factors reflected in it as starch damage, particle size, number of passes (regrind), age of crop when milled, moisture when it is harvested, were crop driers used. ie one kinda gets what you get, ,,, and absorption significantly changes in the first 60 days after harvest.

A "cup" is an accurate measure of ... a cup but recipes are really based on weight and standard liquid volumes. You cannot accurately determine the hydration of flour when baking bread by using a cup to measure the flour and a cup to measure the water. You can make a very accurate determination if your measurements are in grams and liters (or in ounces and pints... but then is the pint you are using British or US? ).

A useless tidbit, ,,, wheat bread targets approximately 50% moisture by weight out of the oven. And long grain rice targets approximately 68% moisture when cooked to US texture target. ,,,,

 

[sour_grapes]

A "cup" is an accurate measure of ... a cup but recipes are really based on weight and standard liquid volumes. You cannot accurately determine the hydration of flour when baking bread by using a cup to measure the flour and a cup to measure the water. You can make a very accurate determination if your measurements are in grams and liters (or in ounces and pints... but then is the pint you are using British or US? ).

I assure you that I was well aware of these facts prior to your post. But Winemanden was complaining about our system of measurements, and was silent regarding bread recipes. The OP asked about unit conversions, and there would be no reason to think that Winemanden's complaint about cups was at all related to the use of volumes of powders in recipes.

 

[winemanden]

To all those that point out that some people still think miles, pounds, etc, I agree. I even think that way at times. It doesn't alter the fact that metric is far more accurate.
A Flat Earther said 'I'll walk to the ends of the earth to prove the world isn't round'. He hasn't got back yet!

 

[winemanden]

To all those that point out that some people still think miles, pounds, etc, I agree. I even think that way at times. It doesn't alter the fact that metric is far more accurate.
A Flat Earther said 'I'll walk to the ends of the earth to prove the world isn't round'. He hasn't got back yet!

Should have mentioned. SG measurements are Metric!

 

[Rice_Guy]

It doesn't alter the fact that metric is far more accurate.

Metric as well as English are equally accurate since the definition of both systems currently goes back to a metal bar stored at the bureau of standards. , ,,, we tossed out the size of the foot of the king a few hundred years ago.
The math is so much easier, ex yesterday answering a post about gravity/ sugar needed I translated into metric to calculate the answer and then back into English for a kitchen measure. I do have to admit though that if the calculator was base sixteen I would have stayed in ounces and quarts.