Under-measured water.. what effects will this have?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Looper

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2011
Messages
218
Reaction score
6
Location
Chicago
So here's the deal:

For my first brew with my new 6.5g glass carboy, I "measured" 5 gallons of water using my new bottling bucket according to the volume indicators on the outside of the pail. I then racked the water into the 6.5g glass carboy, and marked the 5 gallon line with a sharpie marker.

Fastforward to brew-day:

I did a full boil with a starting amount of 5.5gallons (.5 gallon allowed for evaporation.) I was expecting my post-boil volumes to be less than 5 gallons, and just figured it is better to end up with a little less wort and top off to 5 gallons, than too much wort and have weak beer.

It turned out that my post-boil volume hit almost directly on the 5gallon sharpie mark on my glass carboy.

The first red flag was having an actual O.G. that was higher than my expected O.G. using an extract kit. My O.G. was ~1.070 as opposed to the recipe's expected O.G. of 1.064.

Fastforward to today:

I was browsing the forums and noticed that most pails have incorrectly calibrated markings. WTF!? Why put them there if they're not correct?

Anyways, so I ended up filling 5 x 1gallon jugs of water up and dumping it in my bottling bucket. Turns out, confirming my suspicions, that the bottling buckets measurements were incorrect.

It must be about 4.5 gallons or so. Does anyone know how to figure out how much exactly, with the provided O.G.?

Also, what are the negative effects of not topping off to 5gallons, when making a 5gallon recipe batch? I'm assuming one effect will be less quantity of stronger beer.

Thanks!
 
The fermentables were 9.15 lbs of Gold Malt Syrup LME. I also seeped 1lb Briess Caramel 40, but don't think that this should have any effect on the sugar levels.

Not sure if this is pertinent or not, but my pre-boil volume was 5.5gallons.

Thanks a lot if you can help!
 
Well, plugging 9.15lbs of LME and 1lb Crystal 40L into my software shows an OG of 1.067 at 5 gallons. A lot of kits these days are doing 5.25 gallon batches. Assuming it was meant for 5.25 gallons gives me the exact 1.064 target gravity.

It looks like your bottling bucket is about .25 gallons off in it's markings. I adjusted the numbers to a 5.25 gallon boil and a 4.75 gallon final volume and got your 1.070 OG.

As you suspected, it won't have much final impact over the final product. You will have a somewhat stronger brew, but the flavor shouldn't change.

Good luck!
 
Well, plugging 9.15lbs of LME and 1lb Crystal 40L into my software shows an OG of 1.067 at 5 gallons. A lot of kits these days are doing 5.25 gallon batches. Assuming it was meant for 5.25 gallons gives me the exact 1.064 target gravity.

It looks like your bottling bucket is about .25 gallons off in it's markings. I adjusted the numbers to a 5.25 gallon boil and a 4.75 gallon final volume and got your 1.070 OG.

As you suspected, it won't have much final impact over the final product. You will have a somewhat stronger brew, but the flavor shouldn't change.

Good luck!

You guys sure love the numbers and carrying two decimal places. Never in my dreams did I think you could take total fermentables and OG to determine final volume / fermenter size.

Me, i just try and brew enough to fill the kegs...:mug:
 
Well, plugging 9.15lbs of LME and 1lb Crystal 40L into my software shows an OG of 1.067 at 5 gallons. A lot of kits these days are doing 5.25 gallon batches. Assuming it was meant for 5.25 gallons gives me the exact 1.064 target gravity.

It looks like your bottling bucket is about .25 gallons off in it's markings. I adjusted the numbers to a 5.25 gallon boil and a 4.75 gallon final volume and got your 1.070 OG.

As you suspected, it won't have much final impact over the final product. You will have a somewhat stronger brew, but the flavor shouldn't change.

Good luck!


You're the man!!! THanks a bunch!!!

I actually tasted the beer when I sampled the FG, and it tasted really good. Obviously still uncarbonated, warm, and green, but I loved where it was, and even more where it was going.

I've never been one to argue about strong beer!! :drunk:
 
Back
Top