Verifying fermenter and carboy volume

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vinny

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