I lost 1G of Beer in the Fermenter

[BedtimeBrewer]

Does it sound excessive to lose 1G of a 5G batch to trub loss?

I topped off my extract batch to five gallons in my bottling bucket after chilling in the kettle. The wort was strained between the kettle and bucket.

I lost probably 1-2 beers in that transfer after some settling occurred in the bucket and I didn’t want to move that sediment to the fermenter.

After fermenting I yielded 43 beers which is 4 gallons. Is it possible to lose 100+ oz of beer on trub loss?

This was safbrew be256 brewing NB petite orange which has a bag of brown sugar as a flame out addition. I assume that all became trub. It was in the fermenter 13 days, would waiting longer have yielded more beer?

Does the actual volume of wort to beer change through fermentation? It didn’t seem like I dumped nearly a gallon of trub but I guess it’s possible.

 

[McKnuckle]

The reason this happened is because you looked at the wort in the bucket, and stopped transferring when it appeared cloudy/fluffy with trub. That stuff is extremely fine and doesn't filter easily (if at all). And for the first couple of hours, it remains suspended in a ton of perfectly good wort. Next time, just take it all. Filter out the hops, but don't even think about the fluffy stuff.

First of all, it will compact down to nothing in the fermenter. Second, it is largely proteins and has some benefit for yeast health.

The sugar did not become trub. It dissolved in the boil and then fermented completely.

 

[keesh]

After googling the recipe kit your OP mentioned, the likelihood you had a high loss due to hops is low. What you're mostly looking at is settled protein and yeast. I don't worry about protein and yeast as much when I transfer, however I cold crash to settle out fine particles, which is a big reason why I invested in a temp controlled fermentation chamber. Alternatively, you can let the beer settle out over time at room temperature over a couple of weeks depending on the flocculation of your yeast, the protein content, hop content and temperature.

edit: to be clear I force carbonate so I cold crash pretty aggressively, keep in mind for yeast conditioned beers you will need to keep that in mind if you do cold crash (either be less aggressive or reintroduce champagne yeast at bottling)

 

[BedtimeBrewer]

Well, I went from kettle to bucket, then topped off, and only lost 1-2 beers due to sentiment between the bucket and fermenter. So there was still 100+ oz lost in the fermenter.

But to answer one of my questions, can anyone tell me whether the volume changes due to fermentation? Ie liquid becomes solid/gas?

 

[McKnuckle]

No, the volume does not change in a meaningful way. The CO2 produced was never there to begin with. Some solids (sugar) do change to liquid (ethanol). I am no chemist, but this is all on the order of molecular changes rather than literal fluid ounces of measurable liquid volume.

 

[BedtimeBrewer]

Strange so I guess it’s more a factor of an aggressive yeast that generates a lot of trub and perhaps not waiting for the trub to compact further. But it was pretty thick.

 

[bucketnative]

Did you use the volumetric gradations on the side of the bucket to judge you volume? Chance are they are not 100 % accurate.

You will lose a little bit of volume during fermentation due to evaporation and water vapor passing through the airlock with CO2, but not 100 oz.

How much trub was left in your fermenter? If it was a very thick layer, then it could have hid close to a gallon in there. You could physically measure the volume of the trub left in the fermenter and have your answer.

 

[McKnuckle]

Trub is mostly from your boil. It's protein and other solids that are forced out of solution due to the heat (hot break) and then upon rapidly chilling (cold break). This looks gross, but it's utterly harmless and it shrinks way down in size. It compacts at the bottom of the fermenter and does not really represent loss, per se, as it is not liquid to begin with!

The trub at the bottom of your fermenter after fermentation is, first, that compacted layer of proteins as just described, a layer of other small particulates such as stray hop matter and krausen byproducts, then finally a layer of flocculated yeast.

Again, all of these are added solids - they do not take away from the liquid volume, even though they occupy overall fermenter volume. I think this is a big misunderstanding among homebrewers. The loss that we plan for has to do with liquid that is difficult to reclaim because it is inextricably mixed with these solids. And it's actually not very much; if you were to pour all the trub into a giant cylinder to facilitate easier liquid recovery, the pure liquid volume would underwhelm you.

The real lesson here is to filter out kettle hops, but dump everything else into the fermenter.

 

[BedtimeBrewer]

The wort was strained between the kettle and the bucket. So the 1oz hops were removed. The yeast in this case created nearly a gallon of byproduct apparently based upon the bottled yield. That sucks.

 

[Jtvann]

I like clear beer. When planning to bottle 5 gallons, I put 6 gallons into the fermenter. Some beers (hoppy ones) lose more liquid than others. I always get 5 gallons out even when using massive amounts of hops that soak up liquid. Less hoppy beers I usually get more and bottle the extra.

Patience helps all. Things will settle, then compact. If you dont give it time, good beer looks like murky loss.