Recipes volumes

When the recipe calls for a 5g batch, is it 5 gallons prior to pitching the yeast (wort temperature around 70F) or 5 gallons to bottle ?

I did my 1st brew last week, poured the wort into the bucket, added water to the 5 gallons mark I measured and today, after racking to a carboy, I was surprised to see how much beer I lost ! I think I'm around 4-4.5 gallons.

I'd say it really depends on who wrote the recipe. I always say 10 gallon batch but it always varies depending on wether I'm doing an IPA with 8oz of hops in the dry hop or a brown ale that I'm letting stay on the yeast cake and not transferring to a secondary.

Long story short: You're always going to have some loss but it's probably best to shoot for (in your situation) 5.5 gal into the fermenter and then maybe a quart or so less than 5 into the bottle. What's going to happen is you may be a couple points lower on your OG, don't stress, but you'll have more in the end.

okay but for my batch, which is a sierra nevade pale ale, is it gonna affect the taste and alcohol content a lot ?

Do you mean because you ended up with around 4.25 gallons? I wouldn't expect it to change the flavor. You lost it in transferring. It hasn't become more concentrated or gotten diluted.

You're right..! Thanks