AG Recipe Formulation

Hey I got a quick question...

When you are adjusting an all grain recipe, do you account for trub loss in the boiling kettle? In other words, if I want 5.5 gallons in the fermenter, do I formulate my recipe for 6 gallons?

Palmer states the following in "How to Brew":

It would be more realistic to formulate the recipes for an actual batch size of 5.5 gallons to account for wort lost to the trub and hops. Plus you may need to collect more wort (eg. 7 gallons) in order to have 5 gallons of beer at bottling time depending on your extract efficeiency and the vigor of your boil.

Thanks,
Mike

It takes a bit of experience with your equipment and then you will get a good idea of how much loss will be due to trub and such. It would be safe to at least start with 6 gallon recipes and see how it goes. You can always use any leftovers for starters.

I agree. Estimate higher. I don't have any problem dumping out half a gallon after I fill my fermenter. What hurts is falling short. In extract brewing, that might be $2 worth of wort. In AG, it's more like 50 cents.

As an example, on my 10 gallon system, I shoot for a pre-boil volume of 13 3/4 gallons. With evaporation and the crud left at the bottom of the keggle after I whirlpool and let it rest for 20 minutes, I collect about 11 1/2 gallons of wort split between 2 6 gallon carboys. When I transfer to the secondary, this usually puts my beer right up to the neck on a 5 gallon carboy (which is more than 5 gallons). After the secondary, I can fill a 6 pack primed with the carb tabs, and fill up a corney keg. It is nice to have "full" secondaries in case they need to sit for a month or two, and it is also nice to have some bottled beer laying around.

When brewing 'standard 5 gallon batches', I shoot for 5.5 gallons to collect from my boil kettle (post boil obviously). Then, after racking to my secondary, I am assured a solid 5 gallons.

With my system, I :

1) Sparge until I collect 7 3/4 gallons of wort.
2) Do 90 minute boils
3) Collect 5.50 gallons of wort post boil.
4) Transfer to a primary
5) Rack a 'solid' 5 gallons into my seconday
6) Fill one of my cornys
7) Carbonate and enjoy!

- GL63