The Six Gallon Question

[dmrkgrf]

I have been brewing for over 10 years and have often come across recipes that are made for a six gallon batch size. I don't quite understand this as the kegs typically old five gallons.

Making six gallons to ensure getting five seems a waste of a lot of beer.

What am I missing?

Cheers

David

 

[GPP33]

I make 6 gallons. I know I’m leaving some in the kettle mixed in with coagulated protein and hop debris, I know the hops are absorbing some and I know I’m loosing some volume to trub in the fermenter. When I fill a keg it gets filled all the way with very little clear beer left behind. Brewing 5 and only getting 4-4.5 in the end seems like a waste of time, I’d rather risk wasting a little beer. With some styles I waste a few pints worth, some I waste none, but my kegs are always full. The last one I transferred was filled though the beer out tube until beer came out of the gas tube, I then pulled the PRV until beer came out of there. When I say it’s full, it’s a little over 5 gal full.

 

[Staticsouls]

6 gallons into the fermenter, 5 into the keg there is never more than a pint or two left over. The rest is usually hops and yeast. If I can I drink the pints.

 

[schematix]

I usually start with 16-17 gallons of strike water to get 14 into the kettle, 13 into the fermenter, drop 1-2 gallons of trub, and get about 10.25 packaged.

There’s not much leftover and I’d rather be a bit over than a bit under.

 

[BobBailey]

For several years I brewed 6 gallon batches to get 5.5 gallons of clean wort into the fermenter and 5 into a keg. Now, I do 5.5 gallons and don't fuss about trub into the fermenter. It settles out and compacts with the yeast in the end, and has no negative effect on the end product.

 

[VTX1300]

I usually go for 6 gallons. I bottle a six pack out of the fermenter to natural carbonate and keg the rest.

 

[MrBJones]

I make 6 gallons. I know I’m leaving some in the kettle mixed in with coagulated protein and hop debris, I know the hops are absorbing some and I know I’m loosing some volume to trub in the fermenter. When I fill a keg it gets filled all the way with very little clear beer left behind. Brewing 5 and only getting 4-4.5 in the end seems like a waste of time, I’d rather risk wasting a little beer. With some styles I waste a few pints worth, some I waste none, but my kegs are always full. The last one I transferred was filled though the beer out tube until beer came out of the gas tube, I then pulled the PRV until beer came out of there. When I say it’s full, it’s a little over 5 gal full.

Agreed! It's one of the reasons I like the recipes in Jamil's BCS

 

[dmrkgrf]

Looking at my Beersmith equipment setup profile, my post boil volume is actually about 6 gallons before losses to post boil losses and fermenter losses.

My confusion apparently was based on whether a "batch" is considered the final batch size or the "post boil size". Since I do use Beersmith, my ABV, color, and IBU's are adjusted to match the target recipe regardless of what terminology was used by the original brewer to define "Batch Size".

Thanks for the responses

 

[mirthfuldragon]

Trim your gas tubes in a 5g ball lock corney and it holds more like 5.25g, then a half gallon or so of trub loss, like @Staticsouls said. If I get lucky and the trub compacts nicely, I might also get a bomber or two out of it, carbonated with sugar cubes.

 

[aprichman]

I target 6 gallons in the kettle, 5.5 gallons in the fermentation vessel, and 5 gallons in the keg.

 

[Sparkncode]

It all depends. If you are bottling then 6G gives you a few more bottles to the batch as you are not constrained to keg size. Not sll brewers use kegs.

I use beersmith and have multiple profiles setup. 23L is good if i plan to bottle and i have another profile setup for 19L/5G that allows for a typical amount of trub so I can get exactly 1 corny keg with minimal waste.
If i want more beer then i just brew the 6G batch and put the rest in a 2.5G/10L keg. I really should do a 7.5G profile for that rather than getting half a 2.5G keg of beer.

The 6G recipes might come from british 5G which is 6 US gallons if i remember right.