Where am I losing beer?

[epateddy]

Hi all.

In the midst of my first full volume boil batch using the Blichmann 10 gal Boilermaker. Experienced a strange (and significant drop in volume along the way, and not sure how or why.

Started with 6 gallons of water for the boil. Had 5.5 at the end. Used the spigot to add the wort to the primary - good siphon and got the liquid all the way down to the bottom of the tube on the inside of the boilermaker. Didn't have any gallon markers on the primary, so wasn't sure how much I had. But it looked low - definitely less than 5 gallons. Turns out it was 4.5.

Just racked to secondary and now I'm down to 4.25 gallons. Disappointing.

How did I manage to lose a GALLON from the pot to the primary? Is my sight gauge way off?

Thanks.

 

[davefleck]

Hmmm, large trub? Frothy beer @ first measure?

Most often beer goes missing post bottle or kegging

 

[TheBrewAbides]

I think it's strange that you only lost 0.5 gallons during the boil. Are you saying you don't know how you lost the .5 gal?

I'm not familiar with a Boilermaker, so I can't really comment there. Maybe dead space under your spigot? Maybe there was an error with your measuring technique?

You'll figure it out after another batch or two.

 

[Golddiggie]

Depending on how hard I boil in my 10 gallon BoilerMaker kettle, I reduce by 1 to 1.5 gallons. I typically lose about 2 quarts to kettle, hops, and chiller (I use a 40 plate chiller)...

I do know that you can forget about reading the sight tube while the wort is boiling in a Blichmann kettle. You have to get it below a boil before it calms down enough to get a reading. At best it will be going up and down while you try to read it, at worst it will be recirculating back into the kettle.

I suspect that your actual volume into primary/fermenter is a better indicator that you boiled off a full gallon (or more), not the half gallon you thought. If you just toss hop pellets into the kettle, then chances are you lost volume there. If you bag, if you didn't squeeze the wort out of the bags, you lost more there.

Within a couple more batches, you should be able to iron out your volumes (loss and such) with the new kettle. Then it's just a matter of making enough volume, pre-boil, to hit your post-boil levels...

 

[ashplub]

Was your OG more than expected? Cheers

 

[hiphopopotamus]

You'll lose some volume as the wort cools from boiling down to pitching temps. I don't transfer for secondary anymore, but I'm used to seeing a yeast cake & trub take nearly .5 gallons from my brew when finished fermenting (or primary fermentation, anyway).

 

[Mischief_Brewing]

Goldiggie is pretty spot on. I only want to add the reminder that with all new equipment, there's a learning curve. Make sure you take copious notes and adjust subsequent batches to reach your desired volumes and gravities.

 

[wyzazz]

Hi all.

In the midst of my first full volume boil batch using the Blichmann 10 gal Boilermaker. Experienced a strange (and significant drop in volume along the way, and not sure how or why.

Started with 6 gallons of water for the boil. Had 5.5 at the end. Used the spigot to add the wort to the primary - good siphon and got the liquid all the way down to the bottom of the tube on the inside of the boilermaker. Didn't have any gallon markers on the primary, so wasn't sure how much I had. But it looked low - definitely less than 5 gallons. Turns out it was 4.5.

Just racked to secondary and now I'm down to 4.25 gallons. Disappointing.

How did I manage to lose a GALLON from the pot to the primary? Is my sight gauge way off?

Thanks.

First things first, you need to calibrate your Brew Kettle and then calibrate your volume markings on your fermenters. The markings on those things are not to be trusted.

 

[ayoungrad]

Agreed with the above. Just to add a number to the ideas:

Boiling water increases volume by 4% compared with room temperature water. This would mean that at boiling, if you measure 5.5 gallons, you would appear to "lose" 0.22 gallons of water by the time the water cools.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Also, the gallon markers on standard fermenting buckets are notorious for being inaccurate. Calibrate all your equipment with one standard (accurate) tool.

 

[ceannt]

I always loose 1/2 to a gallon.... and compensate accordingly. Always just figured the "little people" were sampling my wort when I wasn't looking.....

 

[ultravista]

I use a metal yard stick from Home Depot, documenting the "length" one gallon at a time. This is an accurate way to measure volume in my keggle. Since I use only one boiler, the measurements are static. This of course will change with a different kettle.

 

[epateddy]

Thanks for the responses.

Some answers to the questions:

I read the volume in the sight glass after the boil. But it sounds like it could have dropped a little more as it cooled. I don't recall checking it again before transferring to the primary.

The OG was a little high. Kit said 1.054. I got a reading of 1.060.

I dumped 6 gallon containers of spring water into the kettle to start, and the sight glass was right at 6 gallons. So that seems spot on.

The Boilermaker is designed to leave very little in the kettle, from what I can tell. Wondering if the spigot got clogged and stopped the siphon early.

Will be watching all of this more closely during the next brew.

 

[RoadKing]

I lose almost 2 gallons per hour during boil .
You also have to account for 4% shrinkage from bieng boiled to cool.

 

[day_trippr]

When I acquired my first 10g Boilermaker, the first thing I did was check the accuracy of the sight tube (cold), and it was spot on the money. The second thing I did was to calibrate the "Brewmometer" (jeeze, that name slays me ) after finding it was off by a few degrees when tilted up to an easily readable angle. The third thing was to do a 60 minute vigorous test boil to see how much was lost (3 quarts, fwiw). I did notice that the sight tube was running high while the boil was rolling, which I filed away in brain space with a link to RDWHAHB

I shoot for 5.5 gallons going into primary, as I've consistently found I lose a bit more than a quart in primary (mostly trub and yeast) and a bit less than a quart dry hopping in secondary (mostly yeast and pellet goo). If I start with a quart more than 6 gallon in the BK I almost always nail that 5.5 gallons spot on.

A "wet run" with a new kettle is always a good thing to do...

Cheers!

 

[epateddy]

A "wet run" is definitely in order.

And I'm already enjoying that new 'term'

 

[Hang Glider]

I always lose at least a gallon to evaporation - "vigorous boil"
I usually plan for a gallon and a half...

 

[Golddiggie]

Just be aware that Boiling with water and boiling wort can give you different boil-off rates. Has to due with the density of the liquid being boiled (aka gravity). How hard/soft the boil is will also impact your boil-off amount/rate.

I would suggest brewing a few more "calibration" batches so that you have a better idea of how much you boil off in an hour.

BTW, racking to another vessel means you'll get even less brew to bottle/keg.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]BTW, racking to another vessel means you'll get even less brew to bottle/keg.

Not sure if that's accurate. If you dry hop and then cold-crash everything to the bottom in a primary fermenter before racking, I'm pretty sure you'd end up with the same payload into a keg as I get going from primary to secondary to keg.

Trub is trub, yeast is yeast, and spent hop goo is hop goo. If you leave it all behind before kegging, it should amount to the same volume lost, whether you use a two-vessel ferm schedule or a single.

Of course, if you don't mind drawing a few trubby yeasty gooey pints - and you actually drink them - then the math is slightly different...

Cheers!

 

[Golddiggie]

Just going off of what I've experienced when I racked without leaving the brew in primary for enough time (first two batches). Since then, longer primaries has made for more to bottle/keg. Plus better tasting brew. :rockin:

I've also only dry hopped with whole hops, so not much 'goo' to avoid... Just good hop flavor/aroma in the glass. I guess I'm also lucky in that I've not had to toss out the first pull from keg so far. I might from the second half of batches (using 2.5 and 3 gallon kegs), but those are not on the faucets yet.

 

[logdrum]

When I went from a 32qt brew kettle to a keggle I saw a significant drop in output volume. I now start with a pre-boil volume of 7.5-7.7 gl. to end up with a full 5 gl. in the keg.

-d

 

[mattd2]

The OG was a little high. Kit said 1.054. I got a reading of 1.060

Was the kit extract or grain? With an expected og of 1.054 for 5 gallons you would have a 1.060 beer with 4.5 gallons.

 

[ultravista]

logdrum - you are boiling off more with the keggle? Is the boil more vigorous?

I roll my boil, no need for a volcanic euruption with spewing wort every where.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Ain't no faieires around here...must be gnomes...

This presents a dilemma...I really I don't want to do a live catch and release...they'll just come back...

OH! did you say Beer? I thought you said bear! Oh well......

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/apparently-i-have-evil-gnomes-stealing-bear-out-my-primary-187905/

EPIC.

 

[cheezydemon3]

Did I really kill this thread?

Pity.