buzzkill

Recipes 

I make up for my losses up front. if I want 10 gals. of beer in my keg I shoot for 12 gal. post boil.

ChemE

Recipes 

I hate wasting any amount of beer! Two gallons would kill me! I just take a little extra time to make sure my losses are drops at most. To each his own, some people would rather waste wort than time.

__________________

My Super Efficient 5-Gallon Mash Lauter Tun • Graduating Carboys • Leaf Hop Absorption Measured
Primary - Bemused Bitter, Munich Saaz SMaSH
Secondary - Air
Bottled - Oatmeal Stout 2011, Apfelwein, Withdrawn Wheat, Bourbon Barrel Barleywine SMaSH, Christmas Ale 2010, Perplexed Pale Ale

buzzkill

Recipes 

I dont really get waste. I have to leave at least a half gal in kettle due to hop matter and gunk. then loss at racking due to yeast gunk plus dry hops.( well I guess I do get alot of waste.) but my kegs get filled up to the gas dip tube.

my next project will be a screen for the kettle. I do hate wort loss, a necessary evil I guess. sure beats the heck out of a keg not getting full.

ChemE

Recipes 

I've tried both holding back the trub and hops (when I use pellets) and just letting it all go in the fermenter. For the beers I brew I just cannot tell any difference whatsoever so now I dump all my hops and break material (hot break gets skimmed off during the boil) into the fermenter. Besides cold break is supposed to be good for the yeast in primary. To get around the racking loss, I put a 2x4 scrap under one side of my carboy the day before I plan to rack to my bottling bucket. This gets my waste racking down to about a pint most of which is yeasty goodness to be washed or composted.

__________________

My Super Efficient 5-Gallon Mash Lauter Tun • Graduating Carboys • Leaf Hop Absorption Measured
Primary - Bemused Bitter, Munich Saaz SMaSH
Secondary - Air
Bottled - Oatmeal Stout 2011, Apfelwein, Withdrawn Wheat, Bourbon Barrel Barleywine SMaSH, Christmas Ale 2010, Perplexed Pale Ale

buzzkill

Recipes 

when I do a 5 gal. brew I also dump.(unless I am going to reuse the yeast) but when I do 10 my keggle I just grin and bear the loss. I tried to dump from keggle one time. that was a mess.

ChemE

Recipes 

Ah, yeah that makes sense. I guess that lip around the top would screw up the whole pouring thing!

__________________

My Super Efficient 5-Gallon Mash Lauter Tun • Graduating Carboys • Leaf Hop Absorption Measured
Primary - Bemused Bitter, Munich Saaz SMaSH
Secondary - Air
Bottled - Oatmeal Stout 2011, Apfelwein, Withdrawn Wheat, Bourbon Barrel Barleywine SMaSH, Christmas Ale 2010, Perplexed Pale Ale

TrickyDick

Recipes 

A lightbulb just went off in my brain.


What about pre hydrating the hops, such as with 5-12 oz water per oz of hops? I'll bet you could use cold or ambient temp water and maybe use a nested glass or bowl or some similar container to submerge the hops, either in a sack or loose? I don't see what harm letting them rest in some water a few minutes before you dump them into the kettle. You could dump the pre-soak water in also I'd bet without ill effect.

TD