Is it possible to lose half a gallon in the primary?

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jonph57

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Hello fellow brewers,

I am in the process of brewing my second batch. On brew day I had five gallons in the primary and before I transferred to the secondary there was only four and a half gallons. Is this normal?

Thanks!
 
Sure it's possible, probable even! Depending upon what yeast you were using the yeast cake could easily take up that much volume and you probably left liquid on top of the yeast cake behind as it is pretty hard to transfer.
 
I regularly start with 5+ gallons in my primary, and at bottling I wonder how I have between 4.25 and 4.5 gallons (depending on if I transfer to a secondary). I don't sweat it, as there's usually a huge, wet, barf-looking yeast cake at the bottom of my primary.
 
When you dumped your wort into the fermenter it had alot of gunk/trub/hop residue, etc... It all displaces the liquid nectar that is beer. That's why alot of people either strain on the way to the fermenter or make 5.5 gallon batches. Not a big deal.
 
Yeah, there is always some loss which is why many brewers target in the 5-1/2 to 6 gallon range for volume into the primary. If you have a blow off during fermentation you will lose some beer there, and as others have said you will always lose some volume behind due to leaving the beer soaked trub and yeast cake.
 
jonph57 said:
Hello fellow brewers,

I am in the process of brewing my second batch. On brew day I had five gallons in the primary and before I transferred to the secondary there was only four and a half gallons. Is this normal?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

So, you lost half a gallon without transferring to secondary? Either it went out your blow-off tube, or you took a half gallon out to take gravity readings. Or, maybe somebody snuck in with a straw. Got any shady characters that sneak around at night?
 
Is it possible there wasn't an airtight seal on your lid? That would explain where your wort went - evaporation!

If that's the case, go ahead and bottle (or keg) as usual. The CO2 creates a blanket that will (hopefully) have protected your wort from infection. Yeast, moreover, has a natural resistance to bacteria that will help prevent minor infections from destroying the batch. It might be a loss, but it's pretty hard to ruin beer.
 

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