adjusting batch size

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antiprism

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I have the following ingredients for my next batch:

- Morgans Blue Mountain Lager
- 1kg Dextrose
- 7g Hallertau

My question is about the amount of water i should add. This is supposed to make 23L of wort i believe. However, my carboy only has the capacity of 23L which doesn't leave any room for the krausen to rise if i were to fill it up.

If I make 21L/22L instead will this negatively impact my beer and make it too strong or whatever? Should i adjust the quantities of the ingredients with regard to the amount of water i add or do i just stop being a pansy and chuck it all in? :confused:

cheers in advance :mug:
 
What volume are you boiling? Are you boiling the whole batch at once? Or partial boil?
Reason I ask is, you have to account for vapor boil off for a full boil.
Partial boils need to be topped off to reach the correct SG/volume.
Even full boils can sometimes need topped off to reach the correct SG/volume.

That ingredient list looks incomplete, or I am missing something.

If you are boiling the whole volume for 60 minutes, I would start with approx. 6 gallons depending on your ambient conditions.


I have the following ingredients for my next batch:

- Morgans Blue Mountain Lager
- 1kg Dextrose
- 7g Hallertau

My question is about the amount of water i should add. This is supposed to make 23L of wort i believe. However, my carboy only has the capacity of 23L which doesn't leave any room for the krausen to rise if i were to fill it up.

If I make 21L/22L instead will this negatively impact my beer and make it too strong or whatever? Should i adjust the quantities of the ingredients with regard to the amount of water i add or do i just stop being a pansy and chuck it all in? :confused:

cheers in advance :mug:
 
Actually, the only boiling i was planning to do was for the hops for about 10 mins. I was just going to add the dextrose and the Morgans kit to primary without boiling it. What do you think?

This is just a basic recipe that a mate gave me. I haven't been brewing for very long. My main concern really is that i only have a 23L carboy and this recipe calls for 23L of wort which will leave zero space at the top.
 
Yes, you need headspace. You could cut back on the dextrose to match the water you also would be reducing. How much extract is in the Morgan kit? We (you) would need to know that in order to run some numbers.
 
Yes, you need headspace. You could cut back on the dextrose to match the water you also would be reducing. How much extract is in the Morgan kit? We (you) would need to know that in order to run some numbers.

+1 on that. if you don't leave about a gallon of head space you could have a bit of a mess. especially if it is a dark beer!

if you think you are low on head space, use a blow out tube..

also, if this is your first brew, you might want to consider substituting some or all of that dextrose with dry of liquid malt extract.
you won't get a home brew cider taste that dextrose can sometimes give you, and your beer will have more body.
:tank:
 
at your brew shop you should be able to buy bags of dry malt extract, or sometimes jugs or pails of liquid malt extract; light, medium, or dark. you can substitute this for the dextrose in your recipe for a better flavor.
just a suggestion..

i've also heard of people using 2 cans and no dextrose.
 
Yeah thanks Scrapper. I might have to get a blow out tube happening. I would consider substituting the dextrose with malt extract but i already have the bag of dex so i think i'll just use it and hope for the best.
 
same here on buying way too much dextrose. it's what the rookie sales clerk told me to put in my beer my first time, so i did what he said..

but don't forget, if brewing beer is something you want to continue in the future, and you plan to bottle your beer, you can use all that dextrose for priming sugar to carbonate your beer. i don't think dextrose goes bad.

ALSO, do some research on HBT on how to do partial mashes or mini mashes with malted grains to help get your fermentable sugars up without using dextrose

sorry if this doesn't make sense, i'm rambling :drunk:
cheers dude
 
Wait a sec - 1.7 kg of extract and 1 kg of sugar? Don't do it, man. Get yourself a proper recipe. You can thank me later.

Anyway, that gives you an O.G. of 1.039 in a 23 liter batch. A bit light, but who knows? It's a strange recipe.
 
Ok yeah you guys make some good points. Thanks for the advice, I think i'll trust you guys over the dude who told me to make this lol so i'll scrap the recipe.

So, just to clear things up... what exactly do you think i should add to the Morgans Blue Mountain Lager kit to make it alright? light malt, dark malt, hops, yeast etc..? and will i need to boil or not?
 
I have that kit and am adding 1kg of light DME and am going to boil 1oz. of cascade hops for 30mins. and 1oz. of cascades for the last 10mins. Also am cutting this back to 21.5litres. Hopefully it gets me around 4-4.5 % ABV. Don't boil the Morgans kit, as it is already hopped. Wow didnt see how old this was, haha, I'm sure you figured this out.
 
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