Waste

Just brewed my first batch of beer and bottled today. Wondering how much waste there is. Only filled about 500 oz out of the possible 640. What's the normal amount of waste?

I don't get a lot of waste, I get about 54 bottle average for a 5 gallon batch of beer.

How long are you leaving your beer in primary?
This is my yeastcake for my Sri Lankin Stout that sat in primary for 5 weeks. Notice how tight the yeast cake is? None of that got racked over to my bottling bucket. And the beer is extremely clear.



That little bit of beer to the right is all of the 5 gallons that DIDN'T get vaccumed off the surface of the tight trub. Note how clear it is, there's little if any floaties in there.

When I put 5 gallons in my fermenter, I tend to get 5 gallons into bottles. The cake itself is like cement, it's about an inch thick and very, very dense, you can't just tilt your bucket and have it fall out. I had to use water pressure to get it to come out.



This is the last little bit of the same beer in the bottling bucket, this is the only sediment that made it though and that was done on purpose, when I rack I always make sure to rub the autosiphon across the bottom of the primary to make sure there's plenty of yeast in suspension to carb the beer, but my bottles are all crystal clear and have little sediment in them.

Half the time I forget to use moss, and you can't tell the difference in clarity.

I get the barest hint of sediment in my bottles....just enough for the yeast to have done the job of carbonating the beer.

Do you mean you expected 19 litres of beer but only got 14 litres?

If so, what was your process? AG? Full boil? Partial drink? Large spill?

Sounds like a lot missing to me.

Brent

7 days in primary. About an inch of sludge. Filled 22 oz bottles and got 21 filled. Plus 2 32 oz ez caps. Left a little in fill bucket just to make sure I didn't get any sludge.

rattletrap said:

7 days in primary.

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Personally I think you're rushing the beer off the yeast too soon- you're not even letting any post fermentation conditioning process even occur.

These days many of us leave our beer in primary for a month, skipping secondary altogether- it leaves plenty of time for the beer to finish fermenting, then conditioning/cleanup of the byproducts of fermentation to happen and then the yeast to clear the beer and flocculate.

If we do secondary, like if we're adding fruit or oak or something, I recommend folks make sure that fermentation is complete, and still leave the beer in contact with the primary yeast strain before racking over. I suggest folks take a hydromter reading at day 12 and again on day 14 and if the beer is at or near terminal gravity, then rack it over for a couple weeks.

But I would never dream of leaving my beers in primary for only a week. For one thing, if the yeast takes up to 72 hours to begin fermenting (Which we have a sticky that shows that it is quite common for that to happen) then moving the beer arbitrarily after 7 days means quite possibly that the beer is only having for days to actually ferment the beer.

That's rarely enough time to let the beer finish, let alone clean up....

^ This, and - it's 'sludgy' and wastes beer. To the tune of about 5 litres, I'd say.

Brent

What did you brew? In my little bit of experience, I have lost almost 3/4-1 gallon to trub/settled hops on an IPA. That being said, I don't use hop bags or secondaries so alot of extra junk ends up at the bottom of the fermenter. Even on my last brew (Belgian Single), I left behind maybe 1/4-1/2 gallon of sludge-beer. I just make sure that I put 5.75 gallons in the primary.

-Frankie D.

If your brewing a five gallon batch generally you want a little more than five gallons going into your fermentor to account for trub loss. I usually get around 5.25 gallons or so then when I rack i actually get the five gallons i want. Also the advice in the above posts is great follow this advice and you should get the volumes you want!

dezman said:

If your brewing a five gallon batch generally you want a little more than five gallons going into your fermentor to account for trub loss.

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I've never done this at all. I put 5 gallons into my fermenter.

With long primaries, secondaries (which it sounds like the OP isn't using either) and/or cold crashing, it allows the yeast cake to settle, and more importanly, it COMPRESSES and gets hard. So rather than your trub layer being very viscous and mixed with beer which you ultimately lose, the beer sits on top of a harder yeast layer, and when you rack you can pretty much rack like a vacuum the beer off the surface of the cake.

revvy said:

personally i think you're rushing the beer off the yeast too soon- you're not even letting any post fermentation conditioning process even occur.

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+1

Revvy said:

I've never done this at all. I put 5 gallons into my fermenter.

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Are you keeping all of your brews in the primary for a month? I would love to get more beer out of the fermenter if this is a viable solution, I just don't think I can wait that long :cross:.

Izbozz said:

Are you keeping all of your brews in the primary for a month? I would love to get more beer out of the fermenter if this is a viable solution, I just don't think I can wait that long :cross:.

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Yes...or longer. Except for maybe the 5% that I secondary to bulk age or to add fruit or to oak.

You'll find that many, many of us on here do this.

I just pitch yeast and come back to it in a month or so.

Izbozz said:

Are you keeping all of your brews in the primary for a month? I would love to get more beer out of the fermenter if this is a viable solution, I just don't think I can wait that long :cross:.

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If you have a way to cold crash, you don't have to wait a month. A week is a little sporty, in my opinion, but 10 days in primary is enough for most ales. I normally ferment at the recommended temps for the first 3 to 5 days, let it rise to room temp until day 10, then cold crash for 2 to 3 days. You'll have the same compact yeast cake in just two weeks.

I Used a brewers best kit for red ale. Followed directions that came with it. I put exactly 5 gallons in primary. Next time i will put a little more to compensate. Thank for all the advice. Im sure i will be asking more questions thanks

Revvy said:

I've never done this at all. I put 5 gallons into my fermenter.

With long primaries, secondaries (which it sounds like the OP isn't using either) and/or cold crashing, it allows the yeast cake to settle, and more importanly, it COMPRESSES and gets hard. So rather than your trub layer being very viscous and mixed with beer which you ultimately lose, the beer sits on top of a harder yeast layer, and when you rack you can pretty much rack like a vacuum the beer off the surface of the cake.

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I don't share this same experience. If I want 5G into a corny keg, I will put at least 5.5G into the fermenter. Without exception, I will always have 1/2G of trub to deal with. I have done various things to try to lessen this, including pouring the wort through a sanitized screen to filter out coagulated material from the boil and hops debris, and siphoning clear wort into the fermenter from the boil kettle. Either way, I've experienced this 1/2G loss with both carboys and a conical.

I do all-grain, and suspect that this might have something to do with it. A friend of mine, who incidentally also is a bucket brewer as Revvy is, always has a compact and firm yeast cake on the bottom, which is barely noticeable during siphoning. My buddy is an extract brewer, which further reinforces my opinion that all-grain has something to do with the excessive trub.

In any case, there is always loss/waste due to trub when brewing. Sometimes a lot, something not. I always project 5.5G of beer into the fermenter with my recipes to take this loss into account.

YMMV.

I haven't brewed that many batches, so I am hardly an expert, but I've cold crashed once and I hardly noticed a difference in the yeast cake. It was indeed a bit harder, but not by much. I'd rather spend the extra couple bucks to throw more than 5 gallons in the fermenter and not worry about it. Plus, I think the crash took too many of the yeast out of suspension, so it carbed painfully slowly.