My first 2 batches only yielded 40 bottles?

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Adk_Mailman

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I am not sure how out of the ordinary this is but I was expecting more than 40 bottles. I now realize there will be some loss to trub but that much? I am not doing secondary fermentation or anything like that. Both were Ipa extract kits.I think I did a pretty good job of racking to the bottling bucket on both occasions.

I did do a general search and saw others posting the same or similar results. And the answers weren't quite clear. One person suggested that Ipa's will have more trub due to the extra hops. That does make sense to me but 40 still seems too low. I am topping off to exactly the 5 gallon mark on the carboy. My first batch came out pretty good. I am quite pleased with the results so no complaints there. Just bottled the 2nd tonight so I won't know for a while. Should I sweat this? Thanks
 
I wouldn't worry. 40 does seem a bit low but not much. For those of us who go all-grain and design our own recipes we all have developed ways of over building certain aspects to get our desired yield. I like shooting for an additional half gallon in the fermentor just so I can stop siphoning well before picking up unnecessary yeast. An extra quarter inch of headspace and sucking up every last bit of trub from the fermentor and you could end up with 50 bottles, but the quality would suffer so much more. If you are happy with the results don't sweat it.
 
^^^ you likely arent accounting for trub loss and the beer your siphon won't get

it's a sad loss, but one we all deal with
 
Are you sure you are topping off to 5 gallons? I would remeasure. Seems to me you are probably only around 4 gallons.
 
I brewed for a long time using erroneous volume measurements. Now I have marked boil kettles, calibrated water buckets and fermenters and a much better handle on this very important aspect to brewing.
Volume also affects starting and finishing gravity, ABV,IBU, carbonation levels (if doing so naturally), flavor and aroma.
 
normal. Sounds like you might have bad marks on your carboy as well, i bet you only have 4 to 4.5 gallons. I just did an IIPA (all grain) that had a ton of dry hop, and only got 43 bottles out of it. But, i learned i need an extra half gallon when i do a 7 oz dry hop
 
I use a "Mash and Sparge Water Calculator", do a 5.5 gallon fermenter batch, account for trub loss including hops (kettle and post fermentation hops), boil off, grain absorption etc. and routinely bottle 52-56 beers.
You just need to know your volumes and adjust your recipe and calculations accordingly.
 
I would check your volume. I do 5 gallon batches, and I don't add extra for trub loss but when I bottled I would almost always get 26 or 27 22 oz bottles per batch.
 
yep, trub loss, I lose 1/2 + gallons to trub. but I also dump my entire kettle into the fermenter, hops, sludge and all, so I expect to lose a bit.
 
As mentioned most of us that has brewed for awhile, figure in for kettle loss and trub loss for fermentation but depending your brew even those that try to figure trub for fermentation it won't always work out that way. I gotten a heavy amount of loss and not so heavy amount from trub. Some batches when I first started out I got around 40-45 bottles. Not to worry as time goes on you'll get the hang of what to expect with more control of volumes. :mug:
 
Ok thanks all. I will learn to not sweat little things like this as time goes on. But I did learn something. What I thought was 5 gallons in my carboy is not. I filled 5 gallon jugs, poured it in and checked. It was 2 inches above what I thought to be the 5 gallon mark. when determining it the first time I filled my plastic bucket to the 5 gallon line and poured it in to my carboy. I was either reading it wrong or the marks are wrong. Likely I read it wrong. It is kinda hard to tell in the plastic bucket I have. Oh well, another lesson learned. Hope my current batch doesn't suffer too much.
 
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