I came up short

I just racked Hefe-Weissen to secondary after 8 days. It didn't fill the 5 gal jug to the top. I'd say I'm about a half gallon short. Should I add water to it?

No. NEVER ADD WATER to a completed brew!

ok, I think it's short but maybe it's not. The brew only comes to the bottom of the bottle curve.

So you have a little less than 5 gallons. I always do too. Just bottle what you have when it's fully conditioned, and enjoy. The actual capacity of the bottle may be a bit more than 5 gallons, so you might not be as short as you think.

Most people end up with a little less than 5 gallons due to racking losses while trying to avoid the trub and yeast debris that accumulates in the bottom of the primary. I get 49 or 50 twelve ounce bottles out of a "five gallon" batch. Good enough!

I just did the same thing!

This is why I brew 5.25 gal batches...so I can end up with 5 gals. (38 - 0,5 liter bottles usually).

Although wine makers always top-off secondaries (generally with juice), you shouldn't with beer. Brewing to 5.25 gallons is a good idea and If you plan on heavy dry hopping, 5.5

You guys are lucky, I only get around 42-45 12 ozers usually. But I eyeball just about everything, so I may not be accurate.

I quickly got sick of netting less that two cases, so now I design the recipe for 5.5 gallons. Even so, dry-hopping my pale ale with whole hops cost me a lot more beer than I wanted...

the_bird said:

I quickly got sick of netting less that two cases, so now I design the recipe for 5.5 gallons. Even so, dry-hopping my pale ale with whole hops cost me a lot more beer than I wanted...

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Because the whole hops hold liquid? Or some other reason?

beer4breakfast said:

Because the whole hops hold liquid? Or some other reason?

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Nope that is the reason.