5 Gallon batch, when do you have 5-gallons?

I have only done a few batches, I skipped extract and jumped right into all-grain.

My question is this... if i'm brewing a 5-gallon batch, when should I have 5-gallons?

I know it's not pre boil, but is it after the boil when it's in the primary? Or is it after all the yeast falls out and the trub loss after transfering to the secondary?

My first batch I had 3-gallons post-boil and only ended up bottling 2.375. Is this about right?

It should be 5 gallons going into the fermenter. I do six gallon batches so that after trub loss i end up with 5-5.5 gallons to bottle or keg. The only problem with doing six gallon batches is you have to adjust all the recipes for it, but i enjoy adjusting them and it's easy once you figure out how to do it. If you are doing five gallon batches you have to adjust for boil off. So if it's an hour boil you could estimate losing 1 gallon an hour to evaporation so you should start with a preboil volume of 6 gallons and end up with 5 to the fermenter

Thanks Dave!

So would I have to figure 1 gallon/hour no matter how much i'm brewing, or roughly 1 gallon/hour/6 gallons boiled?

What i'm trying to say is:

if pre-boil 6 gal = post boil 5

would a pre-boil 3 gal = post boil 2 gal, or 2.5 gal?

I disagree with dave....I shoot for 5.5 into the fermenter so you have a full, delicious 5 gallons at packaging (e.g. bottling/kegging).

EDIT: on second read. I agree with Dave....I think he mis-spoke about 5 gallons going into the fermenter though. 5 gallons into the fermenter means less than 5 gallons going into bottle/keg (yeast/trub losses).

I took what dave said as this... a 5-gal recipe is for 5-gallons post boil... he does 6-gal boils (adjusting his recipe) so that he ends up with 5-5.5 after trub/equipment loss.

But, what % loss should i figure from the amount i put in the primary, to the amount that I bottle?

5 gallons into the keg.

nstorm1121 said:

But, what % loss should i figure from the amount i put in the primary, to the amount that I bottle?

Click to expand...

It depends on your setup, equipment, methods, etc.

In my case, if I want 5 gallons of beer to bottle/keg, I want a post-boil volume in my kettle of 5.5 gallons at least. I'm going to chill, let crap settle, then siphon out of my kettle and lose some volume. When I go from primary to secondary I'm going to lose some volume. When I go from secondary to get or bottling bucket I'm going to lose some volume. If after all that I'm only down two litres I consider myself pretty lucky. Right now I'm focused on light coloured lagers, though. For someone doing a three week primary right to bottling it might be a different question. You see lots of recipes for 5.25 gallons post boil to get a 5 gallons in the keg...so around a 5% loss is what lots of folks figure.

But I want to base my recipe off of the post boil amount, right? Contrary to what BendBrewer said...

I typically have about a gallon of boil-off for a 60-minute boil, and lose about a half-gallon to trub in the fermentor. So I start with 6.5 pre-boil to end up with 5 going into the keg. Both of these losses are constant with respect to the total volume - there's no % loss between primary and bottling, you can simply subtract your typical loss, which is about a half-gallon for me. Similarly, boil-off depends on the surface area of liquid touching air, boil strength, and time, but not volume.

nstorm1121 said:

But I want to base my recipe off of the post boil amount, right? Contrary to what BendBrewer said...

Click to expand...

Yes, your recipe is for your post-boil volume.

It really depends on the recipe and who created it.

If I give someone a 10 gallon AG recipe, that is 10 gallons of kegged beer.

Other recipes might mean 10 gallons to the fermenter.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind

Click to expand...

If going off of someone else's recipe, you are just going to have to guess a little. What's important is to know your system and how to get 5 gallons of BEER out of it and adjust or create recipes accordingly. It take a little trial and error but shoot for 5 gallons of beer as a goal.

You should base your recipe on the post boil amount.That is correct.