Loss of Ale

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Largerlout

Largerlout

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First time brewing. I recently brewed the Leffe clone 23 litres all grain kit. After the boiling step I noticed it was about 3 litres short so I added water back up to 23 litres. Moved to fermenting bin and all went very well. Drew of 100ml to test the specific gravity twice. Bottled it today and I find I am about 4.5 litres short of 23. I recon I wasted about 1.5 litres which was in the bottom of the bin but where did the other 3 litres go. I think the 500 ml. bottles hold slightly more than 500 but not that much. Any ideas or is this normal.
 
Largerlout said:
First time brewing. I recently brewed the Leffe clone 23 litres all grain kit. After the boiling step I noticed it was about 3 litres short so I added water back up to 23 litres. Moved to fermenting bin and all went very well. Drew of 100ml to test the specific gravity twice. Bottled it today and I find I am about 4.5 litres short of 23. I recon I wasted about 1.5 litres which was in the bottom of the bin but where did the other 3 litres go. I think the 500 ml. bottles hold slightly more than 500 but not that much. Any ideas or is this normal.
Click to expand...

I do find that 500ml bottles are easy to fill up further than you imagine.
To return to your general observations, with AG brewing, I aim for 25L in the FV. To get this, I find I need 36-37L of water between mash and sparge volume.

Main losses are post boil trub and the yeasty gunk at the end of the fermentation. I also transfer to a secondary FV for a week before bottling and this does give you brighter looking beer, but another half litre to either tip or play around with in the fridge, maybe to add to the cooking.
 
4.5L is a lot to lose. Your FV may not be accurately marked. Could be a litre out or so. You may have lost more than 1.5L to sediment. Still hard to explain 4.5L I think. Did you get 37 x 500ml bottles?
 
I think like clib the FV markings if you are using them are out which is pretty common if so you will need to fill and mark or fill and weigh then mark for more accurate brewing
 
I managed to fill 29 x 500 ml bottles and 9 x 330 ml bottles. I took a couple of glasses to try it earlier on.
 
clib said:
4.5L is a lot to lose. Your FV may not be accurately marked. Could be a litre out or so. You may have lost more than 1.5L to sediment. Still hard to explain 4.5L I think. Did you get 37 x 500ml bottles?
Click to expand...

I was thinking exactly the same. The markings on the FV are not always accurate and it is very easy to think what is left behind is only a litre or so when it could actually be quite a bit more.
 
Largerlout said:
I managed to fill 29 x 500 ml bottles and 9 x 330 ml bottles. I took a couple of glasses to try it earlier on.
Click to expand...
If my maths is right that is only 17.5L total, which is actually a loss of 5.5L. The plot deepens.
 
What do you think is the best thing to do? put much more water at the beginning, top up after the boiling time, add before fermenting. Sorry but I am new at this.
I've just measured the bottles which I'm using, 540 ml. half way up the neck that accounts for just over a litre.
 
Last edited:
Largerlout said:
What do you think is the best thing to do? put much more water at the beginning, top up after the boiling time, add before fermenting. Sorry but I am new at this.
I've just measured the bottles which I'm using, 540 ml. half way up the neck that accounts for just over a litre.
Click to expand...
1. Check the markings on the FV and add new markings if necessary.
2. Check the OG when you transfer the wort to the FV. If you are under gravity, add enough water to get you to the target gravity. (There are online dilution calculators for this, Brewersfriend has one). In my opinion it's better to achieve the target gravity than the target volume.
3. Accept that you might not achieve the amount in bottles that you expected, but seek to minimise losses. You will always lose some to sediment.
 
Also check the volume markings on your mash tun and on your boiler.

I tend to brew 23L batches: to me, that means 23L going into the FV, to yield around 22L going into keg/bottles. Just as an idea of what you might want to aim for, to get that 23 L, I know I need about 27L pre boil, allowing for 3L/hr boil-off rate for 1 hr & 1L lost to trub/pump/chiller.
 
4.5 litres is a whole gallon - that's about 4 inches in a normal fermenting bin! That's a heck of a lot to go astray.
I usually lose about 200ml of beer plus the yeast cake and that's all. I bottle from the tap and when the beer gets down to tap level I tip the FV onto it's edge jacked up with a block of wood on the back side. If I was using a syphon I'd do the same.
I usually do 4 gallon (18L) brews and expect to get more bottles than you did. From that I normally get 20 500ml bottles plus 20 330ml bottles, plus I have half a pint or so while bottling just to check it out.
 

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