How much beer is in this carboy?

The image below is my first brew (Fat Tire clone). After two weeks in the primary (ale pail) I siphoned to my 5 gallon Better Bottle for a week in secondary before bottling. My concern is that the carboy doesn't look very full to me.

When I topped off my wort in the ale pail on brew day I got it up to the 5 gallon line on the outside of the pail. When I racked to secondary there was some trub that I didn't siphon over, but it didn't seem like that much.

I know it's important to have an estimate as to how much beer I have so I don't over-prime it. And it's kind of bumming me out that I might not get as many bottles as I thought.




Edit Jan 14
I bottled this brew yesterday and got 45 bottles out of it. 45*12oz = 540 oz = 4.2 gallons.

Its a rough approximation, but if you look at this guide on the BB website

http://www.better-bottle.com/products_master.html

That looks to be a bit over 4 gallons if it is indeed in a 5 gallon better bottle

Once you empty it, measure out a gallon at a time and mark the outside with a sharpie. Works like a charm.

Kaz said:

Its a rough approximation, but if you look at this guide on the BB website

http://www.better-bottle.com/products_master.html

That looks to be a bit over 4 gallons if it is indeed in a 5 gallon better bottle

Click to expand...

Thanks, I see that page says 5 gallons is filled to the bottom of the neck. Man... where did my beer go?

n_c_n said:

Thanks, I see that page says 5 gallons is filled to the bottom of the neck. Man... where did my beer go?

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If you put 5 gallons in the bucket and left the trub behind when you racked I would say that's where it went.

JollyIsTheRoger said:

If you put 5 gallons in the bucket and left the trub behind when you racked I would say that's where it went.

Click to expand...

I know, it can't be very mysterious can it. I also took a couple beer thief samples from the primary.

However I am wondering about the accuracy of the gallon markings on the outside of my ale pail now (see this thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/ale-pail-accuracy-182894/). When I get my current brew out of there I'm going to check them.

After you empty this, and before your next brew, mark your bottle on the outside with a sharpie at one gallon intervals.

Based on my Sharpie-marked 5 gal BB, that is about 4.5 gals. You'll maybe lose up to another 1/4 gal to trub going into the bottling bucket, so about 4.25 into bottles.

4G 1QT -/+ a pint...

But Coz' answer was the most useful. After a while you'll start to know just by looking....

You're just gonna have to make more

That is the reason I put 5.5 gallons in primary, so I (hopefully) still have close to 5 gallons at bottling time

n_c_n said:

Thanks, I see that page says 5 gallons is filled to the bottom of the neck. Man... where did my beer go?

Click to expand...

If you left the trub and gunk behind when you transferred, then that is about right. I usually figure on losing about .5 gallons to trub, so I put about 5.5 gallons into primary.

I've been thinkin'. I've had a few already, but I think you should just focus on what's there rather then what's not. It's the beer that matters, and that looks like delicious clean beer. Everything else..is besides the point.

You should calibrate the primary fermenter bucket. The printed scale on some of mine are off by 1" at the 5 gallon level. Just enjoy the beer that you've made and make adjustments for future brews.

Thanks everyone.

My .02. I made my own mash paddle out of oak, filled up my carboy a gallon at a time up to the 4 gallon mark and then every 1/2 gallon after that, and then hacksawed a groove in the mash paddle to show where each measurement was. That way I could just set the paddle on the floor next to the carboy and get an easy measurement. That way you never have to worry about washing off your marks (I use a glass carboy). And if you use two different sized carboys you can mark each side of the paddle for each carboy. I also calibrated my kettle the same way. All you have to do is dunk the paddle in to get your volume. I'm sure a piece of pvc would work just as well. It was a bit time consuming, but you only have to do it once.

Jon73 said:

My .02. I made my own mash paddle out of oak, filled up my carboy a gallon at a time up to the 4 gallon mark and then every 1/2 gallon after that, and then hacksawed a groove in the mash paddle to show where each measurement was. That way I could just set the paddle on the floor next to the carboy and get an easy measurement. That way you never have to worry about washing off your marks (I use a glass carboy). And if you use two different sized carboys you can mark each side of the paddle for each carboy. I also calibrated my kettle the same way. All you have to do is dunk the paddle in to get your volume. I'm sure a piece of pvc would work just as well. It was a bit time consuming, but you only have to do it once.

Click to expand...

That is going to be my plan to use up my keg spear as a measuring stick.

Sharpie lasts a very long time. Just re-mark it before the previous mark wears off completely..like once a year probably... anything else is overkill for my use, but everyone's got their own ideas, so do it up however you like!

For the record I bottled this brew yesterday and got 45 bottles out of it. 45*12oz = 540 oz = 4.2 gallons.