mightynintendo

Recipes 

The main thing you need to get from recipes is the grain bill and additions. Actual water and grain quantities will vary depending on your own specific needs. Don't listen to all these people telling you not to rack so much. If that's what you want to do, then DO IT. Just be sure to adjust the recipe to fit your needs.

You should start out by saying "I want X gallons of beer in my keg or in bottles." Then work backwards and account for all your losses. Water/Wort/Beer losses:

1. Wort lost to atmosphere during boil (varies) ~ (up to 2.5 gallons)
2. Wort left in boil kettle with hops ~0.5 gallons
3. Beer left in primary with trub ~0.5 gallons
4. (Optional) Beer left in Secondary with more trub ~0.5 gallons
5. Water absorbed by grain
6. Wort left in mash tun

It all adds up. But if you want 5 gallons of beer in your serving keg, realistically you should shoot for 6 gallons of wort at the end of your boil. For me that means I will need 9.8 total gallons of water for the full brew session.

RedHouse

Recipes 

My last5-6 brews have been out of Jamil & Palmers book. Those are 6 gallon batches, meaning he shoots for 6 gallons at the end of the boil. I need almost 8 gallons pre boil to get six after the boil. I then cool the wort and let it sit in the kettle for awhile to settle. I transfer 5.5 gallons into the primary, and let it sit for 3-4 weeks. I then transfer 5 gallons into the bottling bucket, leaving all the trub/yeast behind. It's been working very well for me.

I had to adjust the recipies a bit in Beersmith, but I'm pretty consistent now.

stoneyrok

Recipes 

Thanks so much for all the posts. I am sorry I didn't respond sooner. I went out of town and forgot the power cord for my laptop. I had started with a 6.5 gal boil, dumped all the boil and trub into primary but it was down to 5 gal. I must have had too much boil off AND since I used about a 18-19 lbs grain bill I transferred about 4.25 gal to the secondary due to grain trub. It was dry hopped free floating, so I bottled last night and when I moved it to the bottling bucket I had about 3.5 gal cause there was still sediment on the bottom. For the record, I only move the beer from the primary to secondary then bucket to bottle. I heard someone say they siphon from boil which I thought was too much also. I guess the larger the grain bill, the more trub, but I did use beer smith. I think you have to factor in the rate of boil plus grain bill and estimate for your own style while using beer smith and only racking to a secondary. Thanks for the heartfelt post nintendo! And I appreciate the harsher ones too! :-) great topic for me... Thanks

stoneyrok

Recipes 

I think I know another slight problem which sounds weird. I move my primary and secondary. Slowly as not to disturb the bed before siphoning, and this could fluff up the sediment bottom a little which makes it start sucking up dirty beer too early. I am never moving easily again before transfer. I know, it's stupid.

stoneyrok

Recipes 

Oh, and the beer is amazing, it is a red ale IPA dry hopped and just amazing. Tried it flat, so in a few weeks i hope it wins a contest at foothills warthawgs brew meeting! I have a breakfast stout still aging, and a smash about ready to bottle. The beer we are talking about I am calling "Big hoppy red head" LOL

Snowhere

Recipes 

I move my carboys when I bottle too, but I just let them sit while I sterilize my bottles and such. By the time I am ready to bottle it has settled down again and I can bottle clear beer.

cyclonite

Recipes 

I use this fine mesh strainer bag over the top of my primary bucket to remove hop debris, break material, and whatever other junk I have in the kettle when pouring from the kettle to the fermenter:
http://www.midwestsupplies.com/nylon-brew-bucket-filter-bag-fine-mesh.html. You can also go to a fabric store and get some Swiss Voile material (what I use for my BIAB) and make one for < $3.

Has the wonderful side effect of aerating the wort like crazy! If you have a hoppy beer, you may have to unclog the material 2-3 times (which you can easily do by grabbing it on both sides and rolling the trub back and forth until all of the liquid has passed through, and then turning it inside out to dump the junk in the garbage). I strain it through this twice - once into the fermenter, then dump the wort back into the kettle and repeat the process. I primarily do this for aeration, but also helps strain pretty much everything out.

The other benefit to this is that you have a VERY clean yeast cake in the primary after fermentation (1 get 1/2 - 1 inch of trub, and most of it is yeast), which makes it absurdly easy to wash the yeast for storage and re-use later.

__________________
On Deck: DH 90 Minute IPA, Wee Heavy, APA, RIS, Session Stout
Primary: Jamil's Evil Twin, Milk Stout, Belgian Blonde, #9
Secondary: Empty!
Bottled: ESB, Fraoch, Witbier, IPA, Irish Red, Hefeweizen, Pepper Porter, BBQ Brown, Tripel, Woody Wee Heavy
Kegged:CDA, Peach Cider
"Beer, it's whats for dinner!"