Do recipes take trub losses into account?

[TasunkaWitko]

I'm just throwing numbers out as an example to a sketchy concept, so please bear with me.

You have a recipe, say for 1 gallon of beer. When you pitch the yeast into the fermenter, you have a gallon of liquid (10 bottles); but of course, by the time it comes to bottle, you (usually) have only 9 bottles worth of beer, due to trub loss.

I've noticed with most wine recipes that they take into account the fact that as you rack the wine off the lees, you will top it off with water in order to bring it back up to your batch size. This is an accepted part of the process.

In general, do beer recipes take also this into account? Can one "top off" with some water to make up for the lost bottle, and still be within the recipe? Or would one simply be watering one's beer down and moving away from the original intent of the recipe?

 

[CU_tony]

One gallon batches are where trub losses bite the most since its a greater percentage of the overall beer.

My first 1 gal batch I got 8 bottles, the next one was 9. My process is improving!

You will likely be racking to a bottling bucket from the primary, and if you take a FG reading that is too high for your recipe you certainly could dilute it to meet your target volume to bottle, though if you are where you want to be, you will start watering down your beer.

I factor this in and sometimes will use more or less water to boil the priming sugar if I want another cup or two of volume in my bottling bucket.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Hi, Tony, and thanks for the reply.

What you describe with your process is pretty much what I've been doing in order to ensure at least 9 bottles of beer. This has been working pretty well, and I intend to continue doing so. I did try a batch not long ago where I topped it up to get 10 bottles of beer, and it tasted great - however, did it taste the way it should? I don't know.

As you say, the only way to know for sure is to take gravity readings, and since I choose not to do this with these small batches, I do end up accepting some risk of going away from the intent of a recipe. I was just wondering if there were some sort of "general" principle that applies to most situations.

 

[unionrdr]

Well, I tried to take all the usual precautions with my 1st AG, a robust porter I reviewed for Brewer's Friend. Rich, yet still quite sessionable ale, BTW! I found out quickly that the smaller-than-usual auto siphon was needed to maintain a suction till the bottom was reached.
So it took a bit of extra work, past the usual straining, settling, etc to get 9 12oz bottles of beer. Worth it for the AG experience though. Rich flavored beer that was delicious!
My 5-6 gallon beers, using the same careful steps, give better results. Perhaps it's due to my being more used to the larger volumes, besides the volumes themselves?

 

[Gavin C]

In general, do beer recipes take also this into account?

No.

Recipes are formulated to volume in fermentor. Fermentor losses will vary from system to system.

I plan on packaging 5 gallons in a batch. I brew 5.5 gallon batches. (ie: 5.5 gallons to the FV and allow for 0.5 gallons of fermentor losses)

These losses include break material and yeast remaining in the fermentor when the beer is racked to keg/bottling bucket.

It also includes losses of volume in 1-2 gravity samples per batch.

It also should include losses to absorption from dry hopping.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

By the sounds of it, if I want to end up with one gallon of finished beer, should I convert my recipe to 1.25 gallons?

 

[whiskeyjack]

By the sounds of it, if I want to end up with one gallon of finished beer, should I convert my recipe to 1.25 gallons?

Yes that is the general consensus.

Some breweries brew a higher abv beer so when they package it they can dilute it to normal strength. They make a concentrated beer. I dont know how this effects the grain bill. This is also an option if your equipment is maxxed at one gallon

 

[Griffin495]

By the sounds of it, if I want to end up with one gallon of finished beer, should I convert my recipe to 1.25 gallons?

Idk the exact amount but that’s probably too much. I brew to package 2.5 gallons or one case. 2.75 gallons into the fermenter and I get about .25g of trub leaving me with 2.5g to bottle.

 

[TasunkaWitko]

Thanks, guys - I'll fiddle around with it a bit and see what I end up with.