not enough beer?

[bgrand281]

I bottled my first batch yesturday, a hefeweisen, and got 40 twelve oz. bottles. Everything I read says it should have been 48-56 bottles. I did 2 partial boils. I brought 2 g, to a rolling boil and removed to cool. Then did a 3 g, wort boil. Would I have really lost all that in the boil or did i miss something else?

 

[Kevin Dean]

That sounds about right. You did two partial boils which means you had evaporation from all of your water which will be less than 5 gallons.

A lot of time people do single boils and then add what they need to get to a full 5 gallons rather than working with 5 and boiling down.

Either way it's beer!

 

[RichBrewer]

Even if you get exactly 5 gallons into your fermenter you will not get 48 to 50 bottles. You will get loss every time you rack the beer. Especially if you go with a secondary. I always try to brew a 5 1/2 to 6 gallon batch so I end up with 5 gallons of finished beer in bottles or kegged.

If you need help adjusting your recipes give us a shout. There are a bunch of us who can run the numbers through our brewing software.

 

[david_42]

Boil off rates of 10-15% an hour are common. Next time just top off in the fermenter to 5.25-5.5 using pre-boiled water.

Your batch is a little more bitter and a little higher in ABV.

 

[bgrand281]

I have been using brewers best kits, but want to make the caramel cream ale I found in the recipe forum. It sounds easy enough. should i just start with 6 gallons of water to boil? And how much can I concentrate a recipe, such as boil all ingredients in 1 gallon and add the other 4 after the boil? It seemed to help with the cool down time?

 

[BNC04]

Like you, I'm very new at this and am on batch number 4. what I do is start my boil with about 2 1/2 gallons and add water after the wort is cooled to 70. since I also use a secondary fermenter, I add enough water to the primary fermenter to take me almost to 6 gallons in the primary fermenter. When I rack to secondary you will lose some volume, when you rack from secondary to keg or bottle you will lose more. I end up with about 5 gallons of drinkable beer using this.
Hope that helps
Brett

 

[Joker]

Remember you're a homebrewer now so its all about quality not quantity.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

Remember you're a homebrewer now so its all about quality not quantity.

Also, this gives you an excuse to brew more often!

 

[BlackenedBrew]

If you need help adjusting your recipes give us a shout. There are a bunch of us who can run the numbers through our brewing software.

Please forgive me, I'm extremely new to brewing (haven't even done my first batch yet).

Are there any freeware brewing softwares out there that are worth the time to download? I've found some that you have to pay for, and I'm a cheap SOB.

Any thoughts?

 

[ohiobrewtus]

Please forgive me, I'm extremely new to brewing (haven't even done my first batch yet).

Are there any freeware brewing softwares out there that are worth the time to download? I've found some that you have to pay for, and I'm a cheap SOB.

Any thoughts?

I used QBrew for a while: http://www.usermode.org/code.html

 

[BlackenedBrew]

I used QBrew for a while: http://www.usermode.org/code.html

Thanks... question, did you ever have any computer issues after installing this prog? My computer here at work just had some major issues, and the only thing I can think of is the fact that it started wiggin out right after I ran that program. I'm hoping that it isn't this program that did it.

Anyone else have an issue with this prog?

 

[bgrand281]

the recipes that are said to make 5 gallons are really meant for 4 gallons of beer roughly, so it seems, so I would need more of the ingredients not just more water. Or can I do a partial boil, measure what is there and top off with whatever is nessasary to get the goal of 2+ cases?