Final quantity from 5g batches?

I just bottled my first batch, an Edme Irish Red ale kit. When I filled the primary, I had 5 gallons. After two and a half weeks in the secondary, I bottled this evening.

I got a total of 26 - 20 oz. bottles, or 520 ounces out of the original 640. This seemed a bit low, but perhaps not. I did, of course, leave a little in the primary when I racked to the secondary, and again in the secondary when I racked to the bottling bucket, and removed perhaps 20 oz total in testing gravity, so perhaps I am on target.

So, the question: About how many ounces do you all get from your average 5 gallon extract batch?
I appreciate the feedback.

Out of an average 5 gal. Batch I get approx. 50 12oz. bottles or 600 oz. I try to make the primary closer to 5.5 gal so that the finished beer is around 5 gal. You are going to lose some to the trub, and a little each transfer, not to mention if you check the gravity each time.

Like brewsmith said, shoot for 5.5 gallons in the primary so you don't have to worry about the losses. My last batch yielded 50 12 oz. bottles, and that was after losing a bit to the dry hopping. I increase the amount of extract I use by 10% so that still hit my intended OG with the larger batch.

brewsmith said:

I try to make the primary closer to 5.5 gal so that the finished beer is around 5 gal.

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Do you simply add more water to reach 5.5 gallons? Sounds like a stupid question (and maybe it is ), but wouldn't that weaken / thin the beer? Or, do you add, for example, more extract, or more sugar, etc. to account for the extra half gallon?

I generally get 4.5 gallons, which works well in a 5 gallon corny. You lose some on the trub & sampling. If you want to bottle 5 gallons, you increase the size of the batch. More malt, more water, more of everything! I don't bother.

Some recipes are more precise than others. The Roque Mocha Porter clone I made last weekend says 5 1/4 gallons in the primary. It used hops pellets for both bittering and flavor, so the trub is small.

After I finish transfering from primary to secondary or keg, I'll run a little more into a pitcher until the trub starts. Then I let that settle out & do some QA. It ain't wasted if you drink it.

I scale all of my recipes to result in 5.5g in the kettle post-boil. This results in something ~5.25g in the fermenter which I then top up with a 1-2L starter (depending on OG). With transfers and samples I usually get right around 5g in the bottling bucket.

I get just about 50 12oz bottles with out adding any extra water or anything, unless my mark is wrong on my primary. But i keep my carboys on chairs that are slightly angled so i can get more out with little trub.

sause said:

But i keep my carboys on chairs that are slightly angled so i can get more out with little trub.

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Do you bottle out of your primary? I rack out of my fermenter into a bottling bucket and don't leave a drop in it when I bottle. Allows me to stir in my priming agent without having to worry about dredging up trub, as well.

Like most others, I shoot for 5.5 gallons to start with. My last 3 batches, I've gotten 49, 49, and 50 12 oz. bottles respectively.

Just like the others. If you find you're brews are under 5 gals just compensate with the same amount of loss OVER 5 gals (5.5 for example).

I've been brewing that way for years.

As far as worrying if it changes the gravities, it's only an extra 1/2 gal. Not enough to effect it by any more than .002 I would say. On the upside I tend to add more malt (2 oz) than recommended for the recipe.

As for hops, I use whole. When the recipe calls for 1 oz I always use 1.1 oz anyway.

1/2g of water added to 5g of 1.045 wort would change it by .004 to 1.041 according to Promash. Whether or not that's significant is up to the brewer. As a Promash addict, I put all my recipes in and if the recipe is for 5g I just lock the quantities to the batch size and scale it up to 5.5g.

BeeGee said:

As a Promash addict, I put all my recipes in and if the recipe is for 5g I just lock the quantities to the batch size and scale it up to 5.5g.

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Same here. That feature makes it simple to easily change batch sizes and keep all the ratios the same.

BeeGee said:

Do you bottle out of your primary? I rack out of my fermenter into a bottling bucket and don't leave a drop in it when I bottle. Allows me to stir in my priming agent without having to worry about dredging up trub, as well.

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No, I use a secondary and bottle out of a bottling bucket bt when I have to transfer the angle helps me get the most out of the carboys and into the next vessel and without much of the trub.

BeeGee said:

As a Promash addict, I put all my recipes in and if the recipe is for 5g I just lock the quantities to the batch size and scale it up to 5.5g.

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If you don't have Promash, Beer Recipator will do this for you too.

homebrewer_99 said:

As far as worrying if it changes the gravities, it's only an extra 1/2 gal. Not enough to effect it by any more than .002 I would say.

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If you have 5 gallons at 1.055 and add half a gallon of water you end up with 5.5gallons @ 1.050 (.005 difference).

If you ferment that down to 1.010 g from 1.055 you end up with 5.93ABV beer.. at 1.050 to 1.010 you end up with 5.26ABV.

While 3/4 of a percent may not mean a lot to you in terms of alcohol.. I would think that half a gallon of water would impact the beer in a negative way (IMHO) i'd rather have 4.5 gallons of good beer versus 5 gallons of ok beer.

Mindflux said:

If you have 5 gallons at 1.055 and add half a gallon of water you end up with 5.5gallons @ 1.050 (.005 difference).

If you ferment that down to 1.010 g from 1.055 you end up with 5.93ABV beer.. at 1.050 to 1.010 you end up with 5.26ABV.

While 3/4 of a percent may not mean a lot to you in terms of alcohol.. I would think that half a gallon of water would impact the beer in a negative way (IMHO) i'd rather have 4.5 gallons of good beer versus 5 gallons of ok beer.

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I'm not disagreeing with you.

A 5.26% ABV beer is still respectable, but by no means is it just OK. IMHO the difference would only be negligible unless I was trying to hit the style directly on the head for competition purposes. At that time I would definitely go by the book in every way.