Verifying fermenter and carboy volume

[vinny]

My first kits came up short in my carboys due to differing measurements. I filled my primary fermenter to the 23 liter mark, racked and transfered to a 23 liter carboy and was short between 1700 to 2700 ml to top up the carboy, per kit.

I filled a carboy and transfered to the fermenter and found 24 liters is a full carboy, so I was a liter short and had excessive lees on one kit.

It has been recommended that I graduate my equipment myself. The question is what do I trust?

Using a 1 litre measuring cup, I just filled the fermenter and at 20 litres added I was at the 19 litre mark.

Do I even need to worry terribly about specific volumes, or moreso with how much it takes to fill my carboy? If I ferment at 24 litres I will have a full carboy and will only have to top up what is lost to racking off the lees.

This makes sense to me. I can't see there being terrible detriment to a kit with +/- .5-1 liter of dilution over 23 liters.

 

[sour_grapes]

Weighing a carboy full of water to determine volumes is a convenient method.

 

[cmason1957]

When I make wine kits, which is most of the time, since vinifera grapes are outrageous in St. Louis. I always make certain I start a bit above that 23L mark on my fermenters and I'm not afraid to top up with either something I have made or something commercial. I also don't worry at all about picking up some of the lees that I am racking from. I know some work really hard to not get any of the lees, I figure it fell out once, it will fall out again and there is so little the risk of off tastes is pretty low.

 

[mainshipfred]

Weighing a carboy full of water to determine volumes is a convenient method.

Do you remember the thread about this a while ago. I don't recall the member's name but he quite a piece of work if I remember correctly.

 

[sour_grapes]

Do you remember the thread about this a while ago. I don't recall the member's name but he quite a piece of work if I remember correctly.

No, I don't really recall that thread...

 

[Sailor323]

You will find that carboy volume varies quite a bit from carboy to carboy.

 

[hounddawg]

in kits i guess your locked into a volume ,,,
i from scratch or concentrate, find it nice to
acquire extra ,,,,top off bottles,,,, i keep several types of jars
pint,, quart, half gallon and gallon jugs, all with 33-400 threads
that will allow you to airlock all your jugs with a 6.5 drilled bung,
and either ventless silicone bungs or S airlocks, now most Italian carboys use a small universal bung, you can flip that small universal bung upside down and airlock wine bottles,,, sure makes life simpler,,,
Richard