How much are you packaging???

I am an extract brewer brewing 5 gallon batches in better bottles. I am on my 7th batch now and am starting to feel like I am getting my own 'process' down. One thing is bugging the HECK out of me tho... I am never even coming close to getting 5 gallons of actual beer... What I mean is I am only bottling 3.5 to 3.8 gallons total. My last batch I just bottled yesterday, and I got 22 bombers plus one 12 oz bottle, that works out to 496 oz, or 3.88 gallons. (I'm using brewers friend).

Is this about right? My better bottle was literally full to capacity, I definitely had 5 gallons in there, and my og came out spot on. I followed the recipe to a 't'. Does the yeast and/or trub really suck up that much liquid? I used 2 packs of dry yeast.

Any input much appreciated.

Same thing kept happing to me, so I got a 6.5 gal carboy. I also lose a lot of wort due to excessive hops. Now I just add at least a gallon of water, in the middle of the boil, to get 5.5 gals of wort.

Try shooting for 5.25gal post boil. That should give you enough for 2 full cases. I usually boil 6.5gal and get left with 5.2-5.5gal and I get 2 full cases plus a 6er.

dtmbizzle said:

I am an extract brewer brewing 5 gallon batches in better bottles. I am on my 7th batch now and am starting to feel like I am getting my own 'process' down. One thing is bugging the HECK out of me tho... I am never even coming close to getting 5 gallons of actual beer... What I mean is I am only bottling 3.5 to 3.8 gallons total. My last batch I just bottled yesterday, and I got 22 bombers plus one 12 oz bottle, that works out to 496 oz, or 3.88 gallons. (I'm using brewers friend).

Is this about right? My better bottle was literally full to capacity, I definitely had 5 gallons in there, and my og came out spot on. I followed the recipe to a 't'. Does the yeast and/or trub really suck up that much liquid? I used 2 packs of dry yeast.

Any input much appreciated.

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Are you taking gravity readings? If so are you hitting your OG? Sounds like you may be boiling off more than you think and your brew might have a higher OG. If so try adding more water to the boil until you can calculate your evaporation rate...

brettg20 said:

Are you taking gravity readings? If so are you hitting your OG?

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Yes I am hitting the OG pretty consistently. I brew with 3.5 gallons and then top off with water in the fermentor after chilling, and moving the wert over. Generally, I take a gravity reading with just the wert, see how far off I am, then add water, then repeat. I have measured 5 gallons of straight water in the better bottle to see how high up 5 gallons actually is, and on this last brew session I was right at the same level.

Generally speaking, most people have a measurable loss to both the fermenter and the bottling bucket. I usually lose around 0.5 gallons in the primary to trub and whatnot, and maybe just a few ounces to the bottling bucket.

I use a hop bag, remove it when I start cooling, and let it drip into the kettle for a minute or two before tossing the wet hops out. Are you straining hops at all or just leaving them in the wort as it goes into the fermenter?

You won't ever get 5 gallons bottled with a 5 gallon primary, obviously, but surely less than 4 gallons isn't good. Hopefully with process review and revision you can get a better bottling yield.

Sounds like your using a 5 gallon betterbottle/carboy? You should upgrade to a 6.5. It also sounds like you might be losing a lot to blowoff or trub on the bottom of your fermenter.

Try straining you beer more to get hops and such out of there (like others said) and also try making 5.25 to 5.75 gallon batches. I always seem to lose about .5 to .75 gallons from trub and such.

The calculation of the full water volume you are going to use throughout your process is always the same for all brew styles and systems. You will use it in different places, depending on your process, but it'll always be this calculation. If you are not getting your intended final volume, you are not accounting for one of these correctly.

For extract, the most common place you are missing volume is you just aren't topping off with enough water post-cooldown, or possibly are not adding a bit extra to account for the trub you don't rack over:

Batch Size (i.e., 5.0 gallons)

+

Loss to grain absorbtion (This is only about 0.3 gallons in my process, but I squeeze the daylights out of my BIAB bag)

+

Loss to boiloff (this is about 1.2 gallons/hr. on my pot, but all pots are different. Boiloff is a function of surface area)

+

Loss to trub (however much hotbreak you leave behind post boil AND however much you leave behind when you rack from primary...on my system this # is about 0.5 gallons total)

+

Loss to contraction (you lose somewhere about 0.2-0.3 gallons during cooldown just due to the hot liquid contracting as it cools)

=

Total water volume.

Thnx everyone, that really helps. Might have to invest in a 6.5 gal better bottle next time I visit the LBS