8 beers short of two cases.

[BartJY]

Hi Folks,

I did what the instructions recommended. On my fermentation bucket the wort was filled to 5 gallons. When I went to prime and bottle the brew I came up 8 beers short of two cases. Is this normal? And if I want to avoid this in the future can I simply add more water to the wort to make sure I get two cases. And how much over 5 gallons should I fill it?

Thanks
Bart

 

[BartJY]

Never mind. I answered my own question. The answer is: I would have needed almost 6 gallons or wort to make 2 cases. So 8 bottles short is normal for 5 gallons.

Sorry for wasting your time.

Bart

 

[stylus1274]

Hey Bart -

If you have the equipment to pull it off I suggest cold crashing your beer before bottling. You will get an extra 3-4 beers easy.
All the trub and 'mud' will compact down allowing you to pull more liquid.

 

[kh54s10]

What size bottles are you using. You should get 48 twelve ounce bottles if you have 5 gallons in your bottling bucket. If you don't, I would not add water to get to 6 gallons. That would dilute the beer.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

If you want 2 full cases, shoot for about 5.5 gal into the fermenter. Assuming about 3 - 4 qts of trub after fermentation, you will end up around 4.5 - 4.75 gal in your bottling bucket, which is about 48 bottles.

 

[flars]

Did you mark the 5 gallon level on your bucket fermentor or was the 5 gallon ,level factory marked? Factory markings may not be accurate.

 

[balrog]

Did you mark the 5 gallon level on your bucket fermentor or was the 5 gallon ,level factory marked? Factory markings may not be accurate.

Not to mention how exactly the bottles are filled--40 to 48 times any slight difference can be something

 

[eadavis80]

I found early on that if you tip the bottling bucket towards the spigot you can squeeze out another 2-3 beers too. Good luck on your next bottling day

 

[roger_tucker]

If you want 2 full cases, shoot for about 5.5 gal into the fermenter. Assuming about 3 - 4 qts of trub after fermentation, you will end up around 4.5 - 4.75 gal in your bottling bucket, which is about 48 bottles.

This has been my experience as well. I never get a full two cases out of a 5 gallon extract kit. I'm always a few beers short. I would also add that you probably shouldn't simply add an extra half gallon of water to the bucket to bump up the volume to 5.5 gallons (I don't think that's what the quoted poster is suggesting). In a five gallon batch you'd lose about 5 points of gravity by adding another half gallon. However, when you get to the point where you want to try put your own recipes together formulated them for 5.5 gallons.

 

[passedpawn]

I think it's perfectly OK to dilute, but you should account for that in the original beer by increasing the original gravity. Then, when you dilute, you'll have both the quantity and the beer you were hoping for.

When diluting, it's probably a good idea to boil the water first to remove all oxygen (and of course sanitize). This addition would be a great place to add your bottling sugar. Assuming the quantity is only a smallish fraction of the total amount going into the bottling bucket, you should be able to add it to the bucket without chilling first.

 

[BartJY]

Did you mark the 5 gallon level on your bucket fermentor or was the 5 gallon ,level factory marked? Factory markings may not be accurate.

Right you are. I measured my fermentation bucket and it's about a half gallon short of 5 gallons.

 

[roger_tucker]

Right you are. I measured my fermentation bucket and it's about a half gallon short of 5 gallons.

I was just getting ready to circle back on my previous reply. I mentioned that I was generally a few short of 48 on my 5 gallon batches. It's been a while since I did a 5 gallon kit but I sort of remember being about 4 short generally. You said you were 8 short. That seemed like a lot, but being a half gallon short in your bucket would account for that.

 

[Epos7]

One thing I've found that affects my final bottle count is that bottles labeled as 11 or 12oz typically hold more than that. Even 11oz bottles I've bought from my LHBS hold close to 13oz when filled.

 

[BartJY]

I was just getting ready to circle back on my previous reply. I mentioned that I was generally a few short of 48 on my 5 gallon batches. It's been a while since I did a 5 gallon kit but I sort of remember being about 4 short generally. You said you were 8 short. That seemed like a lot, but being a half gallon short in your bucket would account for that.

The next batch I make I'm going to add enough water to finish up with 5.25 gallons of wort. That should get close to 48 bottles without watering down the beer too much.

Thanks Folks!

 

[roger_tucker]

The next batch I make I'm going to add enough water to finish up with 5.25 gallons of wort. That should get close to 48 bottles without watering down the beer too much.

Thanks Folks!

You'll lose a couple of points of gravity on your beer. Two points probably isn't that big of a deal. As someone has already mentioned you can compensate for that by adding a little more extract to your boil if you want to. I'm guessing it would amount to maybe an additional 4 ounces of dry malt extract. I read someplace that 1 lb of dry malt extract will get you 9 points of gravity. Four ounces should get you around two points. Beersmith has a calculator for that in the app. I'm not sure if there's a free one online or not.