bottling temp question

[berryman]

Anyone getting more than 53 1/3 12 ounce bottles from a 5 gallon batch has clearly made more than a 5 gallon batch

Or, they counted after consuming too many brews before counting.

Rick you are doing the numbers and 5 gals. will come out 53.3, but that's in a perfect world, do you always get 12 oz in a bottle? Sometimes and more then likely then not, more or less, but you are right on with the numbers..

[RickBeer]

I get exactly 12 oz in every bottle...

[FedoraDave]

Mike, I'd be interested in knowing your process from mash to bottling, since you mentioned you may not be measuring your water volume correctly.

At the worst, you'd be making a slightly watered-down version of the beer, but you're still making beer. That being said, consistency is important, and being able to estimate volumes for mash, sparge, and pre- and post-boil are important, especially if you want to keep a beer in your pipeline as a "house" brew. There are lots of ways to help yourself with measurements and volumes.

[SoonerMike]

Dave,
I followed the instructions which came from the kit:
Step 7: follow brew day schedule, steep grains 30 minute @ 150, boil add bitters boil 45, add flavors boil 10 mins, add remaining malt extract and finishings boil 5 mins, terminate boil.
Step 8: cool wort. Used ice bath and wort chiller - 14 minutes.
Step 9: I transferred to the fermenter and added water. Instructions said bring to 5 gal. Without measuring, I simply filled the fermenter to the top mark which is 6 gal.
Step 10: pitch yeast. Wyeast 1056- smash Pak activated 8 hours prior to pitching.poured over top .
Final gravity was within range, but I let ferment three full weeks.
Step11: transferred to secondary. I like my beer clean, so I primarily do this to filter. I use a mesh screen along with a micro screen coffee filter. Set another 3 weeks. Last four days I cold crashed.
Step 12: bottled.
Pre - bottling taste test was good , just a bit watery IMO.
I really appreciate your help with this.

Mike

[FedoraDave]

Ah. I see, said the blind man to his deaf dog. It seems Step 9 is the bugaboo, but you're aware of that.

Yeah, a five-gallon carboy will actually hold something like six gallons. You need the head space for the krausen, and even then, you risk a blow-off if your yeast is really aggressive. If you're using a kit that instructs you to top off, as yours did, you need to be accurate, as you found out. If you haven't already, I'd advise you to get hold of a Sharpie and a milk jug and mark off gallon increments on that baby. Why they're not manufactured that way is a mystery to me. But ten minutes with a permanent marker and a gallon jug, and you'll never have to worry about it again.

The reason I asked is because volume can be one of the trickier aspects of this hobby. Everyone's equipment is different*, so your pre-boil volume needs to be one level, and mine needs to be another, and Sam over there, well, his needs to be yet another. I prefer to aim for a post-boil volume of somewhere between 5 and 5.5 gallons. I do full-volume AG batches in my fiver, and while I could top off, of course, I prefer not to. So I've learned what my mash/sparge volumes should be, and I've come up with measuring devices that allow me to estimate pretty accurately where I stand during the process. It's only a dowel with gallon levels notched into it, but I'd be lost without it.



*That's what she said

[SoonerMike]

A dowel rod is a great idea. Thanks, Dave

[FedoraDave]

The great thing about it is I use two brew pots; one for full-volume five gallon batches, and a smaller one for full-volume 2.5 gallon batches. So I measured gallon-by-gallon in each pot, and marked both ends of the dowel. One dowel, two measuring devices! Very handy during the mashing/sparging process.