Amount of beer low...

I added the water as my recipe said but I think I was a little off. I am in the 2nd week of secondary and the amount of wort was never at 5 gallons. I was a little under. I am prob around 4.5ish gallons and the recipe yields 5 gallons at 75%. How will this effect my beer? Top of sticker is 5 gallons. Ps it's a moose drool clone

Did you measure original gravity?
If it was close to what the kit says it should be then the beer will be fine.
If it was higher then you will have a higher ABV beer.
Headspace is only taken into consideration in secondary where there is no protective co2 blanket.

It was close.

Johnnyhitch1 said:

If it was close to what the kit says it should be then the beer will be fine.

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Enjoy!

What does yields 75% mean? 75% of your 5 gallons will be beer?

Sorry for the dumb question but I am a noob

@mufflerbearing: He's likely referring to the efficiency he achieved during the brewing process.

Edit: Misunderstood the question. @mufflerbearing: what part of the recipe you brewed contained the reference to 75%? Because in general, when you see a percentage in a beer recipe, it's referring to how efficient your conversion of starches in the grains to fermentable sugars should be in order to produce the beer.

BattleGoat said:

Edit: Misunderstood the question. @mufflerbearing: what part of the recipe you brewed contained the reference to 75%? Because in general, when you see a percentage in a beer recipe, it's referring to how efficient your conversion of starches in the grains to fermentable sugars should be in order to produce the beer.

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Ok so if I start with 5 gallons of wort I should have about 5 gallons of beer give or take. Depending on how much I lose during settling- secondary.

Kinda, yeah. It really depends on a few different things - kettle size, evaporation rate, etc. But yeah, in general from what I've seen most "five gallon" recipes end up actually yielding a little under five full gallons of finished brew.

Simple answer- I dont see your beer being noticeably affected in terms of flavor with the amount of volume difference youre talking (all other variables not an issue), only the color. Since it's a dark beer I don't seen this being an issue. Takes more than liquid volume to eff a extract beer up.

mufflerbearing said:

Ok so if I start with 5 gallons of wort I should have about 5 gallons of beer give or take. Depending on how much I lose during settling- secondary.

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I usually aim for 6.5gallon pre boil that winds up 5.25 into the fermenter after 60min boil. Which gives me 5 into the keg after trub/sediment loss

GilSwillBasementBrews said:

I usually aim for 6.5gallon pre boil that winds up 5.25 into the fermenter after 60min boil. Which gives me 5 into the keg after trub/sediment loss

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Perfect. I will adjust accordingly.