# Ikea Keg Scales



## stux (20/1/12)

A while ago, I think it was Argon, mentioned a clever way to fill a keg with the lid on. The trick is simply to weigh it on analog bathroom scales as you fill it.

Great.

Now, its hard to find analog bathroom scales these days!

Anyway, Ikea to the rescue

http://www.ikea.com/au/en/catalog/products/60165413/

BOLMEN Scale - $7.99
Article Number : 601.654.13





The scales are 23x23cm, which means a keg sits absolutely perfectly on them.

Now, about the weight of beer.

Beer with an FG of 1.010 will weigh 1.010 times more than the same volume of water. A full keg of water will be 5 US Gallons, which is 18.927L or KG. So, 19KG of Beer at 1.010 is 19/1.010 which is 18.811L

If the beer were 1.004 (very thin), then it would still be 19/1.004 = 18.924L, which is still a few ml less than "full"


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## MarkBastard (20/1/12)

Nice find. Watching the condensation has always worked for me, however would be handy for checking how much beer is left in a keg.


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## winkle (20/1/12)

Or you could use one of these
View attachment 51782


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## benno1973 (20/1/12)

oooh - where do you get them winkle? How much? I have 9 kegs, so hopefully they are pretty cheap


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## d3vour3r (20/1/12)

awsome information but wouldnt it be easier if u worked out the weight of 19L of beer instead of the volume of your beer compared to 19L of water? 

eg if u want to fill the keg with the lid on, weigh the keg empty at XXkg, then multiply 19 x the final SG of your beer, add that number to your dry keg weight to find the final weight of your full keg. then put the keg on the scales, fill it untill it reaches that final weight and your keg should be a nicely filled keg. 

so for Beer with an FG of 1.010 will weigh 1.010 times more than the same volume of water. A full keg of water will be 5 US Gallons, which is 18.927L or KG. So, 19L of Beer at 1.010 is 19x1.010 which is 19.19kg
If the beer were 1.004 (very thin), then it would be 19 x 1.004 = 19.076kg."

kinda the same thing. depends how u look at it.


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## Batz (20/1/12)

Stux said:


> A while ago, I think it was Argon, mentioned a clever way to fill a keg with the lid on. The trick is simply to weigh it on analog bathroom scales as you fill it.
> 
> Great.
> 
> ...




Well that's all very simple :huh: 

I find filling with the lid off and having a peek a boo in the keg fairly easy. Still if you want the keg closed in case all sorts of bad things jump in there, those scales look the goods. Cheap as at $7.99 and you can keep a track of how fat you are now your home brewing. 

Batz


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## winkle (20/1/12)

Kaiser Soze said:


> oooh - where do you get them winkle? How much? I have 9 kegs, so hopefully they are pretty cheap


CB up top, about $12 ea, so not that cheap for 9  
I've been considering getting some to avoid the abuse suffered when getting pissed on a school nite, trying to finish the "there's only a litre" left in the keg. <_< 
Weighing is a lot cheaper though.


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## Lillywhite (20/1/12)

I'm with Mark, watch the condensation, when it hits the bottom of the rubber, keg is full, or look at how much is in your fermenter prior to filling keg ie. 21 litres in fermenter, stop when the fermenter gets down to the 2 litre mark = 19 litres in keg. It's not an exact science but saves stuffing around with scales.


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## Florian (20/1/12)

Have just finished filtering two fermenters into a keg each, with a few left over litres in each fermenter. As always, keg closed and beer in through beer out. Just watching the condensation line gives an very accurate reading of how far you've filled your keg, so you can fill the keg right to the top without any spillage. 

If you haven't tried it, give it a go. Honestly, I would trust that method more than a set of analogue scales.

EDIT: Agree though that it's a cheap set of scales and handy if you roughly wanna know how much beer is left. But even then you can just take the keg out of the fridge, wipe the condensation off and watch where the new line forms. (So no excuses anymore, Winkle!)


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## QldKev (20/1/12)

After kegging for all these years, you telling me I shouldn't take the top of the keg when filling; how should I clean it :blink:


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## NickB (20/1/12)

I leave the lid off. Haven't died yet...


Cheers


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## stux (20/1/12)

Batz said:


> Well that's all very simple :huh:
> 
> I find filling with the lid off and having a peek a boo in the keg fairly easy. Still if you want the keg closed in case all sorts of bad things jump in there, those scales look the goods. Cheap as at $7.99 and you can keep a track of how fat you are now your home brewing.
> 
> Batz



I find I can't see the beer level because of the starsan foam 

And looking at the fermeter gradations is fine, until you start crash chilling with the fermenter on an angle to prevent trub carry-over

And the condensation method only works well when its nice and warm/humid

And the little keg stickers are frightfully expensive when you have a large keg fleet


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## MarkBastard (20/1/12)

Sean72 said:


> I'm with Mark, watch the condensation, when it hits the bottom of the rubber, keg is full, or look at how much is in your fermenter prior to filling keg ie. 21 litres in fermenter, stop when the fermenter gets down to the 2 litre mark = 19 litres in keg. It's not an exact science but saves stuffing around with scales.



I thought you were only meant to fill kegs to the weld line a bit below teh rubber?


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## argon (20/1/12)

I always steal the digital bathroom scales when filling the keg. I fill to a purged keg with the lid still on and note when the scales approach 19kg (once tared of course) seems pretty good for me.

In the future I plan to have the keg fridge under the house in a chesty with lines going up to taps and a bar on the deck (A 4m rise) I was recently on the lookout for scales (for each keg) with a remote digital readout that I could have mounted at each tap, effectively giving me the volume remaining in the keg. I reckon that could look pretty cool. 

Found some that would need extending of the readout (just some simple rewiring) that could work.


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## WarmBeer (20/1/12)

Mark^Bastard said:


> I thought you were only meant to fill kegs to the weld line a bit below teh rubber?


Any higher than that, and I have trouble angling the lid on without getting it in the beer. Yes, the lid has been starsan'ed, but still, I don't like it.

Fwiw, I record my initial volume in the fermenter, then subtract 18 litres, so I know where to stop. Anything left over goes into bottles for swapsies with friends/relos.


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## Florian (20/1/12)

WarmBeer said:


> Any higher than that, and I have trouble angling the lid on without getting it in the beer.



And that's the exact reason why I fill kegs with the lid on.


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## Batz (20/1/12)

WarmBeer said:


> Any higher than that, and I have trouble angling the lid on without getting it in the beer. Yes, the lid has been starsan'ed, but still, I don't like it.
> 
> Fwiw, I record my initial volume in the fermenter, then subtract 18 litres, so I know where to stop. Anything left over goes into bottles for swapsies with friends/relos.




Well your over filling your kegs.


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## Cocko (20/1/12)

Kaiser Soze said:


> oooh - where do you get them winkle? How much? I have 9 kegs, so hopefully they are pretty cheap



Here


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## Lillywhite (20/1/12)

Mark^Bastard said:


> I thought you were only meant to fill kegs to the weld line a bit below teh rubber?




As long as you don't drown the gas tube, it is still a few mil above the base of the rubber. The BOPs use the rubber as a guide.


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## MarkBastard (23/1/12)

argon said:


> I was recently on the lookout for scales (for each keg) with a remote digital readout that I could have mounted at each tap, effectively giving me the volume remaining in the keg. I reckon that could look pretty cool.



I also reckon it would look cool. But most digital scales wouldn't work like that would they? Like they wouldn't be always on, and they set themselves to zero when first turned on? I know the commercial ones can be always on and give a serial output but they're probably too big and expensive.


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## WarmBeer (23/1/12)

Batz said:


> Well your over filling your kegs.


I am not over-_filling_ my kegs.

I over-_filled_ (past tense) once, and learnt from my mistake.


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## stux (23/1/12)

Mark^Bastard said:


> I also reckon it would look cool. But most digital scales wouldn't work like that would they? Like they wouldn't be always on, and they set themselves to zero when first turned on? I know the commercial ones can be always on and give a serial output but they're probably too big and expensive.



All the digital bathroom scales I had were no good for this purpose. They either wouldn't trigger, or would continually re-tare, or would not pickup the gradual change and would turn off, etc.


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## argon (23/1/12)

Batz said:


> Well your over filling your kegs.



Last night i was filtering into a keg and left it too long, turned my back and some beer started coming out of the open PRV. Meaning that it's full to the absolute brim. 

Are there any issues filling it this much? Can this cause any problems? 

I hooked it up to the gas and it's all fine... no beer went up the gas line. Not that it matters, as i have a 6 way manifold with non-return valves on each line and another direct before the reg.


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## Florian (23/1/12)

I've done it many times before, Argon, no issues. 

Still, nowadays I stop just before it hits the top of the gas in, I reckon a little head space just helps with carbonation and also keeps the gas lines clean.
I got NRVs on ech keg as well, but there is still that bit of line in between and I prefer to increase the chance to keep that and the valves themselves beer free.


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## stux (23/1/12)

argon said:


> Last night i was filtering into a keg and left it too long, turned my back and some beer started coming out of the open PRV. Meaning that it's full to the absolute brim.
> 
> Are there any issues filling it this much? Can this cause any problems?
> 
> I hooked it up to the gas and it's all fine... no beer went up the gas line. Not that it matters, as i have a 6 way manifold with non-return valves on each line and another direct before the reg.



I've found it slower to carb when I've overfilled like this in the past... nothing a few flat pints didn't fix tho 

Heh, I have exactly the same setup, NRV heading to 6 way manifold with built in NRVs


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## MarkBastard (23/1/12)

Guessing when doing a keg to keg transfer from a 19L to a 9L there's no harm in filling the 9L up completely then? I mean the beer is already carbed.

In practice I've found the beer stops transferring itself before it gets full. Possibly when the gas dip tube hits liquid.


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