5 gallon LME questions

[Ludesbrews]

All,

I have been brewing 5 gallon LME kits pretty regularly. I have a quick question.

Whether I am fermenting in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy or a bucket, when racking to the bottling bucket, I lose about a gallon and I’m able to get roughly 35-38 beers.

Is this normal? Any advice for getting a bit more out of my 5 gallon kits Is appreciated.

Ludes Brews

 

[urg8rb8]

All,

I have been brewing 5 gallon LME kits pretty regularly. I have a quick question.

Whether I am fermenting in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy or a bucket, when racking to the bottling bucket, I lose about a gallon and I’m able to get roughly 35-38 beers.

Is this normal? Any advice for getting a bit more out of my 5 gallon kits Is appreciated.

Ludes Brews

Losing 1 gallon to trube?

 

[camonick]

I do 5 gallon extract kits all the time and have never had any trouble. I also ferment in a 6.5 gallon carboy. I always try to transfer about 5.5 gallons from my brew kettle to the carboy which normally allows for about 1/2 gallon loss to trub and yeast sediment. How much wort are you initially getting into your carboy?

 

[Ludesbrews]

I will have to look. Always add water to get to the 5 gal line.

 

[Ludesbrews]

Maybe I should add more water to wort to get to around 6 gal to start with?

 

[urg8rb8]

Maybe I should add more water to wort to get to around 6 gal to start with?

Then you're watering it down. Use enough ingredients for 5.5 or 6 gallons.

 

[camonick]

Maybe I should add more water to wort to get to around 6 gal to start with?

Are you doing full volume boils? Do you know what your boil-off rate is for an hour boil? You might have to adjust your boil volume or the amount you use to top off your carboy. I have my carboy marked at 5.5 gallons and always try to get that much wort in it before pitching the yeast. 5 gallon kits always come with the correct amount of ingredients for the style of beer it should produce. It’s fairly common to do partial boils and top up the fermenter to get your final volume of 5+ gallons... there is a concern of improper hop utilization when doing partial boils but from what I’ve read it is fairly insignificant. Are you adding the hops straight into the boil or are you using a hop bag? That would also make a big difference in trub loss.

 

[Ludesbrews]

Always adding straight to boil.

 

[Redpappy]

When I was doing extract I was averaging about 48 bottles. I was doing partial boils, roughly 3 1/2 gal at start, then after poured wort into my bucket I topped off with water till I hit the 5 gal mark. I tried to get all that I could from fermentor, as well as my botteling bucket.

I am using re used samual Adams bottles (12 oz). I also have a few larger bottles that I use from time to time ( can’t remember the size) in which I would only get 29-30 bottles filled.

On your next batch, you may want to measure and see how much you are leaving behind in the fermentor. That would be my guess on a good starting point to see where your losses are. Also, take good notes on your process and levels. Pain in the but, but it does help in the trouble shooting department.

 

[TechFanMD]

All,

I have been brewing 5 gallon LME kits pretty regularly. I have a quick question.

Whether I am fermenting in a 6.5 gallon glass carboy or a bucket, when racking to the bottling bucket, I lose about a gallon and I’m able to get roughly 35-38 beers.

Is this normal? Any advice for getting a bit more out of my 5 gallon kits Is appreciated.

Ludes Brews

Where do you lose it? Spillage? Leaving liquid behind? When I rack from primary, the trub/yeast cake is very compact and I rarely lose more than 6oz of clear liquid. The rest is very thick and sludgy. I'd say 48-50 bottles on average.