Hopefully I can get some help on this. I keep having problems getting my quantities right for a final amount the fermenter and eventually the keg.
I am shooting for getting 5 gallons of beer into my keg. So I guess I would like to have about 5.5 gallons at the end of my boil, then I could rack the wort off the trub into the fermenter (assuming a 1qt loss) , and at the end of fermentation I would lose another qt as I rack into my keg. This does not seem to be working for me.
I use beersmith, but am constantly having trouble getting it perfectly dialed in.
Example from yesterday's brew day:
I go to brew what I consider to be a simple straightforward IPA.
I follow all beersmith directions.
after mashing my initial boil amount was correct, according to beersmith... still on target.
after boil and chill I take a measurement, and it is at 5.5 gallons. This seems too low. More boil off? seems odd, perhaps it was more vigorous than usual. Didn't seem like it.
Then I whirlpool and rack into the fermenter. I guess, here I am losing more than I thought... more like 2-3 qts.
So... then looking at my brewsheet, it says add water to get to 5.5 gallons. I blindly (and stupidly) follow this, and add some water. Take a gravity reading... which, of course was too low, and pitch my yeast.
My conclusions at this point:
- Shoot for a 6gallon boil. This will make up for racking from the trub both into the fermenter and the keg.
- Don't add extra water???
- Don't whirlpool?
Any thoughts? maybe I have another beersmith problem... or maybe another terminology problem.
I am shooting for getting 5 gallons of beer into my keg. So I guess I would like to have about 5.5 gallons at the end of my boil, then I could rack the wort off the trub into the fermenter (assuming a 1qt loss) , and at the end of fermentation I would lose another qt as I rack into my keg. This does not seem to be working for me.
I use beersmith, but am constantly having trouble getting it perfectly dialed in.
Example from yesterday's brew day:
I go to brew what I consider to be a simple straightforward IPA.
I follow all beersmith directions.
after mashing my initial boil amount was correct, according to beersmith... still on target.
after boil and chill I take a measurement, and it is at 5.5 gallons. This seems too low. More boil off? seems odd, perhaps it was more vigorous than usual. Didn't seem like it.
Then I whirlpool and rack into the fermenter. I guess, here I am losing more than I thought... more like 2-3 qts.
So... then looking at my brewsheet, it says add water to get to 5.5 gallons. I blindly (and stupidly) follow this, and add some water. Take a gravity reading... which, of course was too low, and pitch my yeast.
My conclusions at this point:
- Shoot for a 6gallon boil. This will make up for racking from the trub both into the fermenter and the keg.
- Don't add extra water???
- Don't whirlpool?
Any thoughts? maybe I have another beersmith problem... or maybe another terminology problem.