4 gal

[jp27300]

I just bottled my first brew, but I only got a little over 4 gal into the bottling bucket. It was CS extract. I know I lost some to the trub in the boil kettle and again some from the primary. Once I got close to the yeast cake the auto siphon started to become light tan and the bottom of the tube was caked with yeast. The liquid became light tan as well so I stopped as I didn't want all that yeast in the bottles.

I will swirl the wort next time to try and get the trub to the center, but I thought of up scaling my batch from 5 gal to say 5.5 or a little more, knowing ill lose some. What is the best way to do this? The easiest way is to add more water to the concentrated wort, but I assume that will dilute the beer. My next beer is big k,s. Pirate Ale.


Jp

 

[bobbrews]

A few optional tips to avoid sucking up trub (yeast cake, break material, hop particles, etc):

1) Time, Patience, Gravity, Avoiding Agitation - realizing how important these things are will help everything to settle out nicely. I give my beers 3-4 weeks total in the primary before bottling. I set my carboy at counter height at the very start, so when it comes time to bottle, I don't need to move the carboy and agitate the trub.

2) Rack Carefully - wrap and secure your autosiphon with one of those 5 gallon nylon mesh paint strainer bags from Home Depot. It will help to limit trub uptake when transferring to your bottling bucket from your primary. When racking, gently tilt your primary on a book or stepped up surface, and position your autosiphon in the middle of the beer on the edge of the primary. At most, you should only be left with a pint of beer that is untransferred / left in the primary.

3) Use Clarifying Agents for the wort and the beer to limit trub uptake - things like gelatin and whirlfloc help to drop suspended particles and proteins, thus giving you clearer beer in the end.

-----3a) Use filters to limit trub uptake in the first place - Bag your kettle hops, and any grains you use pre-boil. You can also use another one of those mesh bags as a barrier for when you siphon your beer from the kettle to primary. This will prevent a lot of the trub transfer to begin with.

4) Cold Crashing - a week or so before bottling, set your primary in sub 40 degrees F. This will help to drop out much of the suspended particles, especially the yeast.

5) Rack to Secondary - You can't deny that racking to secondary helps to limit the amount of trub carryover when it comes time to bottling. This method is risky since it can expose your beer to oxygen if improperly done. There should be little to no headspace in your secondary.

6) Use a High Floc Yeast - Yeasts that drop fairly quickly and completely produce some of the clearest beers.

 

[sidepart]

6) Use a High Floc Yeast - Yeasts that drop fairly quickly and completely produce some of the clearest beers.

Hah try using WLP007. That yeast is insane. I've never even thought of adding gelatin or other finings because of how well that stuff flocculates.

I like bobbrews advice but in addition to that you may want to try upping your volume. I try to hit about 5.5 gallons going into the primary.

As it turns out, I'm STILL not accounting for all of the trub well enough. I tend to lose about .1 - .25 (depending upon the amount of trub) when I pour my wort over a strainer into the primary vessel. Even with tilting and hemming and hawing I lose about another .25 to yeast cake/trub in the primary, and if I rack to a secondary, maybe another .1 due to the amount of yeast that flocculates out.

You want to make sure you get about 4.5+ gallons into the bottling bucket for a 48 bottle batch is all.

 

[feinbera]

You really don't wanna swirl before going into your bottling bucket; sure, a cone is better than a flat yeast cake all other things being equal -- but, a flat cake that's been compacting and setting out for days/weeks is gonna leave the rest of your beer a lot clearer than a cone that's been setting for minutes or hours.

But, yeah, good instinct on making a slightly bigger batch -- I think most people doing their own recipes go into the fermentor with 5.5 or 6 gallons for exactly that reason. I know I do.

 

[jp27300]

Good Ideas.

For the pain strainer bags, I bought a 1 gal and a 5 gal. is there a need for the 5 gal over the 1 gal?

Just to be clear, My issue isn't clear beer, as I got good settlement and clarity in the primary. I won';t swirl the primary, just the kettle prior top primary.

But The bottom part of the primary was a heafty cake that the fine yeast clouded the last 1/2 gal or so badly.

I will incorporate many of the ideas, but as for making the batch 5.5 gal, is it as easy as adding 1/ gal more water or do I need to up the ingredients slightly.

Thanks

JP

 

[bobbrews]

Whatever fits down the length of your auto siphon is what you should use. For me, that's the 5 gallon version.

Careful racking and experience help to prevent agitating/clouding up your cake while racking.

You shouldn't be adding any water to compensate for the loss... but you shouldn't be losing up to a gallon either. If you do, then you're not being careful enough.

 

[jp27300]

Whatever fits down the length of your auto siphon is what you should use. For me, that's the 5 gallon version.

Careful racking and experience help to prevent agitating/clouding up your cake while racking.

You shouldn't be adding any water to compensate for the loss... but you shouldn't be losing up to a gallon either. If you do, then you're not being careful enough.

Ok. I'm a little confused as to the bag filter. Are we trying to put a filter over just the intake of the siphon or are you moving the siphon around inside the larger 5 gal bag?

 

[Revvy]

I find that leaving the beer in primary for a month or more gives me the most beer than racking to a secondary. If you rack to a secondary, you get some loss. If you let the yeast fall out of suspension THEN let the yeast cake compress, you get a hard concrete like trub on the bottom. Ad you can carefully rack the beer off the top of it, like a vacuum. I get around 52-53 beers from a 5 gallon batch this way for years.

 

[bobbrews]

Found this pic on the web for an illustration...

 

[jp27300]

I find that leaving the beer in primary for a month or more gives me the most beer than racking to a secondary. If you rack to a secondary, you get some loss. If you let the yeast fall out of suspension THEN let the yeast cake compress, you get a hard concrete like trub on the bottom. Ad you can carefully rack the beer off the top of it, like a vacuum. I get around 52-53 beers from a 5 gallon batch this way for years.

I'll try that next time. After 3 weeks and cold crashing for a few days, the cake was solid but the top was doughy and it didn't help that I stuck the tip of the siphon into it, lol. Luckily I stopped with a sihpon tube 1/2 full of yeast goop.

Due to your many posts on the subject I have avoided usuing a secondary nor do I plan to unless dry hopping or the like.

Thanks again

 

[jp27300]

Found this pic on the web for an illustration...

I see now. had I used the 1 gal the bag, it would just fall off the end. ha ha

I told the lady at Home depot that I couldn't figure out why I need a 5 gal bag, but that people far more knowledgeable said to get a 5 gal bag. I bought both.

Thanks!