Lost a gallon of beer somewhere in the process?

[shastings1287]

I brewed my first beer 3 weeks ago, the Kolsch recipe from Brewer's Best and pretty much followed the recipe word for word, and everything seemed to be fine along the way. All the way till bottling this weekend that is. I had gathered up enough bottles for a 5 gallon batch, 12 one liter swingtops, and 20 regular 12 oz bottles. I bottled all of the liter bottles and was halfway through the first six pack of the 12 oz bottles and my bottling bucket started to run dry. Leaning it over I got just enough out to squeak out that first 6 pack. I was still left with 14 bottles, about 1.2 gallons worth that I expected to have but wasn't there!

Did I do something wrong? Is this much loss to be expected? There was a pretty thick layer of trub in the bottom of the primary but I'm not sure if it was a whole gallon worth. I also wasted a bit with newbie mistakes, spilled some when siphoning from primary to the bottling bucket, but not nearly a gallon worth.

Thanks for your help, I'd be happy to post more details about the brewing process if needed but it seems like I've written a book already and I'm not sure what info is necessary.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

Did you have your full volume into the fermenter from the brew kettle? Moisture will evaporate during fermentation, more or less depending on temps, but I'm not certain it's 20%.

If you are using the marks on the side of the fermenter, I'd start by checking them against a vessel known to be a gallon.

Also, for my brew kettle without a sight glass, I made a gague stick. 1/2" diameter red oak dowel with sharpie lines at gallons and ticks approximating quarter gallons. Do the gallon marks by filling the pot. The first gallon will be taller than the rest, even with a parallel sided pot, due to the rounding of the walls at the base.

 

[duboman]

Most people will plan on 5.5 gallons into primary to get 5 gallons finished volume. If you brewed to 5 gallons in primary, 4.5 gallons would be expected finished volume with trub loss being the 1/2 gallon.

It sounds as though you had less than 5 gallons to start in primary. If you are using a graduated bucket, verify the markings with measured volumes of water, they are not always accurate. If you are using a carboy, graduate it to the half gallon with markings so you know.

Now another concern: If you primed the batch for a full 5 gallons you have probably over primed your bottles and may have over carbonated beer or potential bottle bombs depending on how much sugar you used and how you primed.

 

[shastings1287]

I did a partial boil using 2 of the 2.5 gallon water jugs you can buy at the grocery store, 2.5 into the primary, and boiled 2.5. So it was exactly 5 gallons. It makes sense now that I'm thinking about it that I would have lost some of that to trub and probably boil-off, I was just a little floored when I was left with 15 or so bottles unfilled.

Is there any good way to calculate how much extra water to add so you end up with a five gallon batch at the end? I imagine adding too much water would dilute the flavor a bit.

That's a concerning point you bring up about over-carbing. Per the brewing instructions I boiled 2 cups of water with 5oz of corn sugar. Is that too much? Is there anything I can do to be preventive about it? Or should I just wait and pray?

 

[NivekD]

Now another concern: If you primed the batch for a full 5 gallons you have probably over primed your bottles and may have over carbonated beer or potential bottle bombs depending on how much sugar you used and how you primed.

This! I would get those bottles in a large covered tub to let them condition. You may have a few suprises if you used priming sugar for a five gallon batch in four gallons.

 

[duboman]

This! I would get those bottles in a large covered tub to let them condition. You may have a few suprises if you used priming sugar for a five gallon batch in four gallons.

This is good advice, after about a week at 70 check the caps and see if they are bowing up, if so you can gently un-cap and let them burp some gas and then recap. You may need to do this several times over the next week or so.

That's about it unfortunately. Take notes about what went wrong so next time you get it right. Also, you are best to weigh out priming sugar to the gram instead of measuring by volume. Don't always assume a pre-measured package is true to weight. For lower level carbonation .75oz to 1 cup of water is good for a finished 5 gallons, for higher levels go to 1oz.

You can also look into the priming calculators as well.

 

[CervezaMaLa]

I did a partial boil using 2 of the 2.5 gallon water jugs you can buy at the grocery store, 2.5 into the primary, and boiled 2.5. So it was exactly 5 gallons. It makes sense now that I'm thinking about it that I would have lost some of that to trub and probably boil-off, I was just a little floored when I was left with 15 or so bottles unfilled.

Is there any good way to calculate how much extra water to add so you end up with a five gallon batch at the end? I imagine adding too much water would dilute the flavor a bit.

That's a concerning point you bring up about over-carbing. Per the brewing instructions I boiled 2 cups of water with 5oz of corn sugar. Is that too much? Is there anything I can do to be preventive about it? Or should I just wait and pray?

Measure your 5 gallons out after boiling, not before. I boil at least 2.5 gallons in my boil kettle, but more like 3.5 since I can fit it (I don't bother measuring it since I know I have more than 2.5 gallons). I use that cold bottled water after my boil to get the wort temp down the last few degrees before rack and yeast pitch...then pour more in to get primary up to a full 5 gallons. If you put 2.5 gallons in primary, then boiled 2.5 gallons (assuming an hour boil), you weren't close to 5 gallons in the end due to evaporation during the boil (especially after trub loss).

 

[microbusbrewery]

What style beer did you make? Assuming it was at 70F with 5oz of corn sugar into 5 gallons, that would put you just shy of 2.7 volumes. Into 4 gallons that would be between 3.1 and 3.2 volumes. I usually like my beers carb'd lower than that, but I have used regular 12 and 22 oz bottles for saisons without any issue and they were in the neighborhood of 3.2 volumes. So your beer will be overcarb'd but based on my experience I doubt you'll have bottle bombs, more likely just gushers. Venting the caps a bit should help. The tricky part is doing it consistently.

 

[shastings1287]

Given the temperature in the basement right now, how much sugar I put in (if the packet was accurate, duboman is right I should have weighed it myself), and the amount of beer, using Northern Brewer's calculator I should end up with a CO2 volume of about 3.3, which is higher than the Kolsch style of 2.7 I was going for, but if I understand correctly, probably not enough to worry about bottle bombs (fingers crossed).

I've learned some valuable lessons from these mistakes and the comments everyone has left, this is truly an amazing community I'll keep coming back to.