4 gallon yeild from 5 gallon batch

[The Soft Underbelly]

Yesterday I just bottled my second brew, it was a 5 gallon extract batch of which, after secondary fermentation, I was only able to rack 4 gallons into the bottling bucket. This batch was dry hopped and I had the whole " hops clogging my auto siphon at the bottom" issue. My first wasn't dry hopped and from that I maybe got 4.5 gallons.

Is this common? Any body else have similar experiences and/or advice on whether I might be able to increase my yield. Not like I'm complaining mind you, but hey, thats like... I dunno... more beer I might feed my liver, ya know?

 

[funkydrummer88]

I'm quite the beginner, but I have had the same thing happen to me in my first 2 batches. I think it's because you boil off a lot of the measured water that you account for. Try making a line on your fermenter, and filling the rest of the way with water right before you ferment. This should give you a full 5 gallon batch.

 

[Arneba28]

Yes this will happen and is unavoidable. You will always have yeast cake at the bottom and if you want good beer with not a lot of sediment you will stop racking when you get about an inch from the cake on bottom. Also, the hops will absorb some beer when you dry hop it. This can be avoided by just stepping up your recipe a tad bigger. Just use Beer Tools to calculate your recipe and if you want 5 gal finished then start with a recipe for 5.5 or 5.25 gal that way when you have that loss to hop absorbtion you will still have 5 gal. If your loss is from boil off just plan on adding 15% more water. Figure out your %boil off per hour then multiply your recipe by 1.(boil off percentage/hr)

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

Yes this will happen and is unavoidable. You will always have yeast cake at the bottom and if you want good beer with not a lot of sediment you will stop racking when you get about an inch from the cake on bottom. Also, the hops will absorb some beer when you dry hop it. This can be avoided by just stepping up your recipe a tad bigger. Just use Beer Tools to calculate your recipe and if you want 5 gal finished then start with a recipe for 5.5 or 5.25 gal that way when you have that loss to hop absorbtion you will still have 5 gal. If your loss is from boil off just plan on adding 15% more water. Figure out your %boil off per hour then multiply your recipe by 1.(boil off percentage/hr)

Far too much math this early in the morning, but what you say makes sense. I'm still brewing from kits and probably will until I go all grain, but I had a feeling that would be the case. I'm cool with the boil off though and have toped off to 5 gallons each time. Mostly just wondering if what I was seeing was normal given the circumstances. Thanks for the advice.

 

[Yooper]

Well, it's normal and when you think about it, it's good. I mean, I'd rather have 40 bottles of really good beer than 53 bottles of some watered down beer. If you're doing kits, and they are set up for 5 gallons, you can probably expect 4.25 to 4.5 gallons of finished beer.

You may just want to decrease your priming sugar slightly if you commonly get 4 gallons or so every time. I'd use 4 ounces of priming sugar for 4.25 gallons.

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

interesting, it never occurred to me that the priming sugar ought to be reduced. would too much sugar lead to the beer being over carbed? Not thats that the worst thing in the world.... just wondering though?

 

[Fenster]

Yes.
And bottle bombs are no fun!

 

[eddie]

When you secondary your beer, put a book under one side of the fermenter so the sediment falls to one corner more than the other. When you go to rack the beer to your bottling bucket, place you siphon on the side opposite the sediment.

 

[The Soft Underbelly]

When you secondary your beer, put a book under one side of the fermenter so the sediment falls to one corner more than the other. When you go to rack the beer to your bottling bucket, place you siphon on the side opposite the sediment.

Also good advice, i can now tell my high school English teacher friend that i have now found a redeeming quality of Charles Dickens

 

[janzik]

Well, it's normal and when you think about it, it's good. I mean, I'd rather have 40 bottles of really good beer than 53 bottles of some watered down beer. If you're doing kits, and they are set up for 5 gallons, you can probably expect 4.25 to 4.5 gallons of finished beer.

You may just want to decrease your priming sugar slightly if you commonly get 4 gallons or so every time. I'd use 4 ounces of priming sugar for 4.25 gallons.

I don't know if using a little more water is going to create that much of a watered down problem. I guess it's also based on the style. If you're brewing a yeungling clone, it's already going to be light. If you're doing a winter ale then maybe it's not as tragic if it comes up a little lighter than the recipe calls for. In the dozen or so extract batches I've done, I've had a few that have shown up well under the 5 gallon result mark to where it bothered me that my yield was so low. In subsequent batches, I've made it a habit to use more water (I'm not talking 7 gallons or nothing), and I get closer to where I think I "should" be.

I can only speak for my LHBS (Brewer's Apprentice) and they make no real indication on their recipe how much you should be yielding, only that it's a "5 gallon batch". Does that mean use 5 gallons of water? Does that mean you should have 5 gallons of wort to ferment? Does it mean the batch should yield 5 gallons after fermentation. There is no real explanation that I've ever received.

That being said, OP didn't mention how much starting water he used. Boiling 5 gallons is probably not going to yield 5 gallons (even after 2-3 quarts of extract). So like someone said above, use a program (or hell, guess) to tell you how much water you should start off with. Also, when dry hopping, it may help to use a hops bag or a cheese cloth sock. At the end of your auto siphoning, don't forget to tip your bucket/carboy/whatever a little bit to get that last couple of ounces.

 

[Yooper]

I don't know if using a little more water is going to create that much of a watered down problem. I guess it's also based on the style. If you're brewing a yeungling clone, it's already going to be light. If you're doing a winter ale then maybe it's not as tragic if it comes up a little lighter than the recipe calls for. In the dozen or so extract batches I've done, I've had a few that have shown up well under the 5 gallon result mark to where it bothered me that my yield was so low. In subsequent batches, I've made it a habit to use more water (I'm not talking 7 gallons or nothing), and I get closer to where I think I "should" be.

I can only speak for my LHBS (Brewer's Apprentice) and they make no real indication on their recipe how much you should be yielding, only that it's a "5 gallon batch". Does that mean use 5 gallons of water? Does that mean you should have 5 gallons of wort to ferment? Does it mean the batch should yield 5 gallons after fermentation. There is no real explanation that I've ever received.

That being said, OP didn't mention how much starting water he used. Boiling 5 gallons is probably not going to yield 5 gallons (even after 2-3 quarts of extract). So like someone said above, use a program (or hell, guess) to tell you how much water you should start off with. Also, when dry hopping, it may help to use a hops bag or a cheese cloth sock. At the end of your auto siphoning, don't forget to tip your bucket/carboy/whatever a little bit to get that last couple of ounces.

All good points! I guess I was assuming that the water was added to get to whatever the SG should be. So, if you're making a beer and the recipe OG is 1.050, and you're at 1.050 with 5 gallons, adding water to get you to 5.5 gallons (so you end up with an even 5 gallons) will change the beer slightly. (That would change the OG from 1.050 to 1.046- not a huge change). It might change the IBU/SG ratio slightly, but not really significantly depending on the beer. It would only decrease the ABV by .5%.

So, I guess either way it's fine! I work at getting my recipes "just so", though, so I still would rather have a few less bottles of my beer than to add water for quantitiy. But I can see how others would feel differently.