I'm not crazy.......right?

I did my second Brewer's Best kit and bottled today. I understand that you generally lose some beer when siphoning before and after fermentation. Both times though it has been about 6-8 bottles short of their stated "53 12 oz bottles" on the side of the box. Am I making a big deal out of nothing? Also, could this mean I'm over priming if I use the packet of sugar they include in the kit?

Thanks!

I started brewing using Brewer's Best kits. I never ended up with more than 48 bottles or so. It does depend a lot on how filled you make your bottles. 1 or 1.5" from the top is more beer than 12 oz in most bottles.

You don't really need to secondary unless you are dry hopping a beer. If you just rack (siphon) the primary into your bottling bucket after 2-3 weeks of fermentation you will lose less beer.

It's not just a loss from transfer but also to trub loss. If you top off to exactly 5 gallons you can expect to lose .25-.5 gallons IME and yes, you should be priming to the finished volume of beer you bottle.

If you want to bottle a full 5 gallons then the recipe needs to be adjusted to account for the additional volume prior to losses.

I can attest to the 5 gallon batch really being closer to 4.25-4.5. Make sure you top off to 5 gallons in fermenter... I just added 2 gallons of water and thus was off due to the 120 minutes of steeping/boiling. Also led to higher OG's than anticipated.

My first 2 batches I only ended up with about 42 beers, it took me awhile to perfect racking around the trub and getting the last bit of good beer out, my last 4 batches I have been between 48 and 53 beers and I fill just over 5 gallons.

Thanks everyone! On a side note, if I was stupid and only brewed and bottled a pumpkin spice porter today, will it last until next fall with the standard Brewer's Best bottle caps?

sjramm said:

Thanks everyone! On a side note, if I was stupid and only brewed and bottled a pumpkin spice porter today, will it last until next fall with the standard Brewer's Best bottle caps?

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Not if you drink it before then

You can store capped beer for years as long as your sanitation practice is good.

sjramm said:

I did my second Brewer's Best kit and bottled today. I understand that you generally lose some beer when siphoning before and after fermentation. Both times though it has been about 6-8 bottles short of their stated "53 12 oz bottles" on the side of the box. Am I making a big deal out of nothing? Also, could this mean I'm over priming if I use the packet of sugar they include in the kit?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

Yea, this is definitely one of those things I think gets overlooked a little bit among introductory articles and books and whatnot. As others have stated, there are several factors that determine what volume you actually get into your bottles - boil off, cooling shrinkage, loss to trub, gravity samples, etc etc. Hell, there are 128 ounces in a gallon - so even if you misjudge your bucket fill line by ONE TENTH, you'll be short a bottle. between 45-55 is not abmornal in my experience - although getting upwards of 55 and more, you may start to wonder if you added too much top off or something.

sjramm said:

Thanks everyone! On a side note, if I was stupid and only brewed and bottled a pumpkin spice porter today, will it last until next fall with the standard Brewer's Best bottle caps?

Click to expand...

A regular gravity porter is not going to improve with that much age. So, I wonder why you wouldn't just drink it when it's ready and brew it again next fall? Especially since you'll get a chance to make changes based on how it turns out this time? I drink pumpkin beers straight through winter - I actually used to stock up on pumpkins in the fall when I bought commercial versions before I started brewing.