HELP! Has anyone dealt with this?

We brewed a 5 gallon batch on our single tier system with RIM. Started with about 7 gallons in the HLT to have sufficient sparge. Wound up with 5.75 gallons in the boil kettle at the start. Tossed in leaf hops (in a muslin hop sock) at 60 mins. Sent the hot wort through the chiller and finished with 3.75 gallons in the fermenter!!! I am a little surprised so much was lost but I am guessing the leaf hops, the hop sock and the chiller accounted for so much???

Here is my question... should I top off the fermenter with clear water to get back to 5 gallons? I already pitched the yeast, and 14 hours later we are bubbling along nicely!

Thoughts and observations PLEASE!!!

I lose 2-2.5 gal/hr but my kettle is very wide. Measure originally volume and final volume w/o chiller, preferably at similar temp. I squeeze my hop bags so they don't take too much. If you are way high in OG you might consider adding water bit I would have done that before fermentation started.

Sounds about right for the volumes you are talking about.

For a batch I brewed yesterday, I mashed with 3.1 gallons and sparged with 5.6. I ended up with 7.5 in the kettle before boiling, 5.4 after, and about 5.1 into the fermenter. I boil off almost the same amount every time - 2.1 gallons.

Once it's started fermenting, I wouldn't add any water. You're pretty much stuck with what you've got.

I should have squeezed my hop bags, but pulling them from the boiling wort presented a challenge.

Jsbeckton said:

I lose 2-2.5 gal/hr but my kettle is very wide. Measure originally volume and final volume w/o chiller, preferably at similar temp. I squeeze my hop bags so they don't take too much. If you are way high in OG you might consider adding water bit I would have done that before fermentation started.

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Brewfist said:

I should have squeezed my hop bags, but pulling them from the boiling wort presented a challenge.

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Haha. I tend to wait until the wort is cooled down and then do it with sanitized hands!

I would not suggest adding water because you lost sugars with those hops. If it was just boil off I'd say go ahead and add water, no biggie. If you add water at this point you will just be watering down past where you want it. If you are really concerned about volume boil some water and extract at your OG, let it cool then add it to the fermenting wort.

I'd take this as a learning experience and fix volumes moving forward

This partly summarizes what's been said already because this issue has several sides:

1. It depends on your OG. If your OG was high, you can top off with enough water to reach your target OG.
2. If your OG was NOT high, you need to top up with target-gravity wort, not water. You may need to bitter this wort in order to avoid an unplanned, maltier beer.
3. Since fermentation has already started, you'll need to work off calculations from the OG in any case.
4. Be careful not to aerate as you top up. If you're topping up with wort instead of water, add some yeast nutrient.

Thats the crux of my surprise! I started with a 7.5 HLT for a 5 gal batch! I've never used that much leaf hops before (and may never again), so I am blaming them partly for soaking up too much wort! I just wondered what the collective opinion was for adding water, and NOT hurting the brew. I get the OG will be affected, and I won't know by how much unless I just toss in some pre-bolied cool water.

It is a simple one malt batch with an OG of 1.03.

rgauthier20420 said:

I'd take this as a learning experience and fix volumes moving forward

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So then was the 5.75 gallons your full volume before you started your boil? Or what was the volume before you started boiling? Was the 7.5 gallons all the water you used for a full 5 gallon batch?

The answer to the first two questions is yes, because they are the same question I think. I drew off 5.75 gallons from the mash tun to the boil kettle and turned up the flame on the kettle. I figured about .75 gallons might be lost during the boil. The 7.5 gallons was the amount we started with in the HLT.

Maybe it's a combo of absorbent leaf hops and a vigorous boil.

Either way I have decided to just leave it be, the air lock is bubbling merrily away! I will report back to anyone interested how it turns out after carbing.

rgauthier20420 said:

So then was the 5.75 gallons your full volume before you started your boil? Or what was the volume before you started boiling? Was the 7.5 gallons all the water you used for a full 5 gallon batch?

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You've definetely got to fix your water volumes going forward. I always need to start off with a preboil volume of 6.5-7 gallons in order for 5.5 gallons to go into the fermenter. This gives me right at 5 gallons of finished beer when you count trub losses.

Brewfist said:

Thats the crux of my surprise! I started with a 7.5 HLT for a 5 gal batch! I've never used that much leaf hops before (and may never again), so I am blaming them partly for soaking up too much wort! I just wondered what the collective opinion was for adding water, and NOT hurting the brew. I get the OG will be affected, and I won't know by how much unless I just toss in some pre-bolied cool water.

It is a simple one malt batch with an OG of 1.03.

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When I make a 5 gallon batch of beer, I normally start with at least 9 gallons of water.

Here's where it goes (assuming 12 pounds of grain):

1.5 gallons of water= grainbed absorption
2 gallons of water = boil off (evaporation)
0.25 gallons= trub left in boil kettle
5.25 gallons = into fermenter

That's 9 gallons of water, for a 5.25 gallon batch, without a huge amount of leaf hops to "soak up" wort, without any deadspace in the mashtun, and without much trub loss.

Most people will boil off 1.5 gallons in the boil, more or less, so starting with 6.5-7 gallons of wort in the kettle is typical.

Oh, and don't top off now unless you really want to water down your beer to a "near beer"!

Next time, start with more volume into the boil kettle or make a smaller batch all along.

7 gallons is what I collect in my BOIL KETTLE for the boil. In you HLT, you need to account for grain and hop absorption and any losses to dead spaces in your equipment. That would be loss to liquid you cannot remove from the equipment during the process.

I would think that you would need to start with closer to 9 to 10 gallons in the HLT.

I heat a little more than I need for the mash. This allows some extra hot water in case my mash temperature is low. While the mash is going I heat a couple gallons more sparge water than I need. I run a first sparge and measure the wort collected. (batch sparging) I then subtract what I have from what I need which is 7 gallons to end up with 5.25 after the boil. I then add the needed water as the second sparge.

Thanks Everyone for the advice!

Yup I use about 9 gallons of water maybe a touch less then that if I'm using less grain in the batch. I'd say I use around 3.75 gallons for the mash and 5.25 for sparging. Usually collect about 7-7.5 gallons for the boil.