Amount of Water in Anvil Foundry

[Tmurray0827]

I have made two batches of beer in my new Anvil 10.5 gallon foundry. I am following the directions on the amount of water and sparging with 1 gallon of water. After I get all done after secondary fermentation I am getting a lot less than 5 gallons. I want a full keg. I also want to start taking gravity readings but am already short. I'm running on 110v and don't feel like I should be losing over two gallons in the mash and boil. You always lose some in the transfers to primary and secondary and keg. Can I add more water to ensure I get 5 gallons or does anyone have any others recommendations? Thanks

 

[Oginme]

First, stop doing secondary unless you have a really good reason. A really good reason would be if you are adding a lot of fruit or plan on leaving the beer in the fermenter longer than 3 to 4 weeks. You run more of a risk in oxidation or contamination than any benefit you get from transferring to a secondary fermenter.

Next, the guidelines in the Foundry manual are good for starting, but every person runs their process a bit differently. I recommend recording your volumes measured into the mash and sparge, pre-boil and post boil to figure out where your losses are so that you know the areas to target for cases just like this one.

Lastly, you always have the option of topping off to get to the volumes you want. Again, it is your process and product. I would advise that any water you add after the wort has been chilled be boiled and cooled before adding it to make sure you don't bring in any contamination and to reduce the amount of oxygen in the water which might lead to staling.

 

[Tmurray0827]

I'm buying all grain kits. Most call for 1-2 weeks in primary and any secondary. If you don't suggest secondary fermentation, how long do you leave it in the primary? Thanks for responding. I really appreciate it.

 

[Oginme]

Ales typically stay in primary for 8 to 12 days before cold crashing for 3 to 4 days and packaging. Some higher gravity ales I will give an extra 5 to 7 days before cold crashing. Lagers will get 10 to 18 days in primary before a 2 to 3 day rise to the low 60's and then cold crash for a couple of days. Once they have cold crashed, I will usually move them to cold storage (40F to 50F) for lagering for a week or two.

A lot of kits have instructions such as the ones you are using. Mostly this is a hold-over from the past belief that you did not want the beer on the yeast for very long, but if you pitched a near adequate supply of healthy yeast it really is not an issue. There are several threads on HBT about using secondary or not which you can search for to get more information.

 

[Munster51]

Also, check your Anvil to make sure that your volume markings are correct.