Who / what is stealing my beer?!

I just completed my second batch. The first was a DFH 60 minute clone and it turned out great. The second is a DFH 90 minute clone and I just racked to secondary and it tastes pretty good. The only problem is that in both batches I've lost about a good half gallon to gallon of beer by the time I'm ready to bottle!

My first batch I boiled off too much but didn't know until later and ended up with a little over 4 1/2 gallons after trub loss, and hop sludge pulling out beer. This time I boiled off too much, but I knew it when I transferred to primary and added boiled water to compensate. So I now have 5 gallons in the primary. But when racking to secondary, I only have about 4 1/2 gallons left. Is this normal? I siphoned down to the yeast cake and left about 12 oz of yeasty water on the cake. I did a hydrometer sample which probably pulled another 12 oz. But 24oz doesn't make a gallon!

Any ideas?

I would say you are loosing it with dry hopping. Especially when using leaf hops. I have started adding 1/2 gallon to the batch size to accomodate this. If you check the recipes, I think many do the same.

BTW, was that Yoopers DFH60? I always have it on tap!

lschiavo said:

I have started adding 1/2 gallon to the batch size to accomodate this. If you check the recipes, I think many do the same.

Click to expand...

+1

I always do a 5.5 gallon batch