Batch size question

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So I brewed my first batch today. It was a pale ale taken from a recipe in a book I found.

The recipe stated it was for a 5 gallon batch, but after the boil and putting the wort into the primary fermenter, it was only about 3 gallons. Is this normal? Will the worst expand an entire 2 gallons during fermentation or was I supposed to add more water at some point? I followed the recipe exactly, but it just doesn't seem like I wound up with enough wort.

The recipe originally called for 3.5 gallons of water plus 6 lbs of malt, for roughly 4 gallons total. I guess a gallon boiled off.
 
You need to top off your fermenter with enough clean (preferably boiled and cooled) water to reach your batch volume of 5 gallons. If you check the recipe again, I'm willing to bet there is some mention of this.

If you post the details of your recipe, we can give more specific advice. Did you measure the original gravity before pitching the yeast?
 
You need to top off your fermenter with enough clean (preferably boiled and cooled) water to reach your batch volume of 5 gallons. If you check the recipe again, I'm willing to bet there is some mention of this.

If you post the details of your recipe, we can give more specific advice. Did you measure the original gravity before pitching the yeast?

I've read the recipe over multiple times and there is no reference to topping off the batch. I went back and double checked after noticing the final batch size.

We did it at a friends house, so I don't have the recipe with me right now. Perhaps it is just a step they left off assuming we'd know to do it.

Is this batch a goner, or can we add more water after the initial step? He is gone tomorrow so Monday evening will be the first chance we get.
 
I promise you, if it's a 5 gallon recipe, you need to add water to achieve 5 gallons! It won't "expand" in the fermenter, at all. In fact, there will be some loss to trub, so you may end up with only 2.5 gallons. Perhaps the topping off step is assumed, or listed elsewhere in a general instructions section of the book.

Personally, I'd suggest topping it off, even if you have to wait until Monday. Otherwise you'll have a much smaller quantity of a much stronger beer! Not necessarily a bad thing, but not what you or the recipe had in mind.

Either way, don't worry about it...you'll still end up with beer! Worry ruins beer faster than anything. :mug:
 
Best thing you can do is go buy a Hydrometer, take a measurement and then you'll know for sure. It's an investment worth making if you don't want to guess.

If you've made a mistake you'll end up with a very strong beer that tastes nothing like it should.
 
I would definitely go ahead and top off with 2 gallons. If you are worried about the sanitation, go ahead and boil 2 gallons and store it in a sanitized container in the fridge over night and then add it when its around room temp.
 
top it off - Many store instructions are pretty crappy. My first one was also for 5g and from what I saw I was only using 4.75g of water.

Plus - once you start to obsess over beer making you will see all SORTS of things your instructions are doing wrong (like pouring ALL the extract in at once).

Top it off - the beer will be fine and then start inhaling the 3000 tweaks to make a GREAT beer.
 
I would recommend posting the recipe, there are some 3 gal recipes out there and you don't want to dilute it down to bud light. But Orfy is right, a hydrometer is a critical tool, you can make beer without it, but it gives you much more control and information on the fermentation process, alcohol content, etc.
 
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