I have six 6.5 gallon carboys. I was tired of not knowing just how much was in there, so I spent my Saturday at the office measuring and marking a carboy quart by quart, then cutting vinyl graphic material to make the volume markings. Whatcha think?
Chris
Nice! ;D
NICE!
Far nicer than the similar (but decidedly “meatball”) job I did on mine with epoxy based spray paint and some stencils.
I’m jealous.
Take solace
Yours is infinitely better than my magic marker re-done every once in a while method
I really need to do this someday though
VERY nice work
Very nice looking. I used etching cream and stencils on mine, but the vinyl looks great.
I’m envious.
I guess I also need to do better than just a magic marker.
I’m jealous. I use a laundry marker to note half-gallon markings, and the markings seem to stay on through various washings, but it’s downright primitive compared to this.
Thanks!
Lots of people have liked the idea and wanted to buy them from me. I’ve been working on a Version 2 because Version 1 were tricky to make, and tricky to install. Version 2 will be easier all the way around, so they’d be affordable for me to make and affordable for others to buy. I’ll post more info when I get this all figured out. What would you expect a volume lable to sell for at a home brew store? I was thinking something in the $4 - $5 each range, with a discount for a pack of 3, or something like that. What do you think?
Chris
did you measure the volume in all 6 carboys? Wondering how consistent the levels in the different carboys were from one the other.
I have only 2, and did a pretty detailed measurement on one. But, lazyness took over and I copied the markings from the first to the second. Always wondered how accurate # 2 really is.
I confess that I don’t really waste much time with carboy volume determinations.
If ever I do, I’d probably use the laundry marker method.
Yet, the labels look really nice.
Given that glass carboys come in all shapes and sizes (no standarization)–don’t know how one could guarantee the accuracy of the labels as the vertical height of each gallon in one carboy won’t necessarily equal the vertical height of each gallon in another carboy.
Better bottles, on the other hand, are standardized.
I don’t know why they don’t just have ridges already on them (i.e., created during the forming process).
Chris,
If version 2.0 is reliable on the measurements and easy to apply (ie put the carboy on a table and line the vinyl up starting at the table going up) I would purchase at least 20 of them from you for sale in our HBS. We’re always looking to expand our selection of products. A quick thought, if you can make them reliable to apply, you might try talking with Brewcraft or another HBS vendor about carrying the product. It would make it a lot easier to get distribution.
I didn’t measure each carboy, but that’s a good point. I’ll put the same amount of water in each of them and see how close they are to the same. I’d guess they are really close, as they aren’t hand blown. I’ll let you know what I find. I’ll also measure other sizes & brands and create stickers for them, as well.
I will keep you posted on my progress.
Thanks for the interest!
Chris
Chris,
Another point you may wish to consider is making the labels white, rather than green.
Even better would be white dashes and numbers with black outlines. The goal is to maximize contrast.
Around 10% of the people in this country are color blind (the majority are red-green color blind) and the green color does not have much contrast against an amber or dark beer. If your labels had white lines and numbers and black outlines, then it would not matter what color the beer was (light, amber, or dark) because there would be adequate contrast between the beer and the labels.
Yup, version 2.0 would be white with dark numbers/lines, or the reverse. It’s be easy enough to make both, then the customer could choose.
Thanks for the input!
Chris
They look great. I’m still at the stage of just eyeballing the fill level; everything else is a crapshoot.
You mean, you can measure stuff in this hobby? ;D
Nice job.
i sell cut vinyl for fleet graphics. but i just put a piece of black electric tape at 5 gal on mine.
did you hand cut the vinyl?
Hand cut!?! Ummm yeah… with a #11 X-acto 
Okay… you got me. I own a sign shop, so I used my vinyl cutter. It’s only taken me 4 years to get to it.
haha
Well I’ve been meaning to do this as well to my 2 carboys, just getting lazy. I don’t really care to mark every single quart, but I’d like to know where I’m at between 5 and 6 gallons.