Top off a 1-gal batch?

[ThatEthanolGuy]

Hi all,

New brewer and first time poster here...I made my first batch ever on Christmas Day (NB's Chinook IPA), and I'm hooked.

I'm reading a lot about 5-gallon kits that instruct to top off with water in the fermenter after the boil, but I haven't been able to find any mention of doing so to a 1 gallon batch. My IPA came up surprisingly short (7 bottles), and I could tell as soon as I transferred to the fermenter that I was way under a gallon.

Would it have been frowned upon if I had gone ahead and topped off to an even gallon in my fermenter? I'm going to make a stronger effort to determine the amount of water I lose in the boil before I start my next batch.

 

[McKnuckle]

Here are the 1 gallon kit's instructions:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/ChinookIPA_ONEGALLON.pdf

Do you mean you only had enough beer to fill 7 bottles, or were you short by 7 bottles? I'd be shocked at the latter, since a gallon only fills 10 bottles and change.

The instructions say to start with 1.25 gallons, and to boil for 45 minutes, so they expect you to boil off only a quart or so. Did you boil off a lot more? It would have been okay to top off to match the goal volume of the kit. But it's also fine if you didn't!

 

[chickypad]

It really depends on where your losses are coming from. If they are due to lots of hops or kettle trub then adding water is going to dilute your beer. If it's due to too much boil off then topping off would be the correct way to go. I don't know how they figure the volumes for those 1 gal recipes, but many people (especially for hoppy beers) target a larger batch size knowing that the finished beer volume will be lower. For example to get 2.5 gal in the keg I usually put 3 gal in the fermenter, or for 10 gals finished about 11.5 in the fermenter.

 

[ThatEthanolGuy]

Here are the 1 gallon kit's instructions:
http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/ChinookIPA_ONEGALLON.pdf

Do you mean you only had enough beer to fill 7 bottles, or were you short by 7 bottles? I'd be shocked at the latter, since a gallon only fills 10 bottles and change.

The instructions say to start with 1.25 gallons, and to boil for 45 minutes, so they expect you to boil off only a quart or so. Did you boil off a lot more? It would have been okay to top off to match the goal volume of the kit. But it's also fine if you didn't!

Sorry for not being clear...I had enough beer to fill 7 bottles.

I followed the instructions to a T with the 1.25 gallons and the 45 min boil...definitely ended up with less than a gallon though! I did not top off, but the first bottle was opened tonight and tasted fine.

 

[NSMikeD]

Sorry for not being clear...I had enough beer to fill 7 bottles.

I followed the instructions to a T with the 1.25 gallons and the 45 min boil...definitely ended up with less than a gallon though! I did not top off, but the first bottle was opened tonight and tasted fine.

Don't worry too much about coming up short with kits. IMO, they are designed for what goes in the fermentor and not in the bottle.

Keep doing what you are doing, taste is what counts not volume. Get a dip stick that you can measure water height in your pot and note the diameter and height of your pot in cms. Volume = 2πr^2

You can measure your own evaporation rate. Eventually you will start using software and start modifying recipes for your own equipment and preferences.

From you post it appears your transferred everything into the fermentor and it looked low - that would mean you evaporation was fast so topping off with water would be ok.

If you did transfer a full gallon into the fermentor but only got 7 bottles, then that would mean the kit recipe is off as it's not fully accounting for trub.