Beer Forum

Attempted my first brew ever last night and ran into an evaporation problem. I had almost 5 gallons in my main boiling pot and kept it at a "gentle, rolling boil" as instructed for 60 mins as I added my hops/ingredients at the proper intervals. When I called the wort and transfered it to my 5 gallon glass bottle it was just about half full.

I have read some instructions that say that I should have added 2 gallons of regular water to the bottle prior to straining my wort into it. I am not sure if that is correct.

So my real question is, considering that you are going to have some evaporation, what is the best way to end up with 5 gallons at the end?

Any newbie advice would be greatly appreciated.

Happy New Year!

I always start with 6.5 gals. at the beginning of the boil expecting to boil off 1 gal. and then lose another .5 gal. in the fermenter so that I have 5gal. to bottle or keg.
mark
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Mbird has it right. You need to work backwards to figure your preboil volume. Let's say you want 5 gallons into your fermenter (I usually go for 5.5 gallons). To that you will need to add about a half gallon that will be left in the boil kettle (break material, hops, and anything else that may have fallen into the kettle). Then you need to figure in your evaporation amount. With most boil kettles at a moderate rolling boil you will evaporate about 1 gallon per hour. With these added together you will need to start with 6.5 gallons to end up with 5 gallons in the fermenter.

The most common boil kettle for folks getting started with full volume boils is a turkey fryer pot. These are normally 7-7.5 gallon capacity {with another half gallon more to fill to the brim). This doesn't leave a whole lot of extra room when boiling 6.5 gallons of wort so you need to be quite vigilant to avoid boil over. It really helps to have a spray bottle of water handy as it comes to a boil. As the foam forms, keep spritzing it with water while gently stirring and the foam will drop right back down. Once the foam quits forming you don't have to watch it so close and then you have time to get things ready for the next step. Don't worry about trying to skim the foam off, that is a totally unnecessary step some folks try to tell you to do.

When figuring your evaporation rate, go by volume per hour, some folks go by percentage. A percentage rate is misleading as the rate changes with any change in volume. For any given pot at the same intensity of boil you will always boil off pretty much the same volume every time. If you are getting 1 gallon to boil off when you start with 5 gallons (20% boil off) you will still only boil off 1 gallon if you start with 10 gallons (10% boil off) in the same pot. Once you figure out the volume you lose to evaporation after a couple of batches, the math becomes real simple since this rate doesn't really change significantly (drier weather will cause more evaporation than humid weather).

The first brew is always a challenge since there is so much to learn all at once. Don't worry about it. You have made beer and beer is good. Adding the extra water to the carboy before or after the wort makes no difference at all though you should try to have as much of the water in the boil as you can. If your kettle doesn't hold enough, adding it post boil works just fine.

One thing about your process as described raises a slight bit of concern. You mentioned straining the wort as it goes into the fermenter. I hope this is after cooling the wort down to cool room temperature. Doing this with cooled wort is great because it introduces extra oxygen into the wort which the yeast needs for proper growth. Doing this hot is bad because it will oxidize the wort which will cause quick staling and a wet cardboard taste. The temperature at which you mix air into the wort can make the difference between world class beer and dumpenbrau.

Congrats on your first beer! Be sure to let us know how it comes out.

Wayne

Bugeater wrote:Mbird has it right. You need to work backwards to figure your preboil volume. Let's say you want 5 gallons into your fermenter (I usually go for 5.5 gallons). To that you will need to add about a half gallon that will be left in the boil kettle (break material, hops, and anything else that may have fallen into the kettle). Then you need to figure in your evaporation amount. With most boil kettles at a moderate rolling boil you will evaporate about 1 gallon per hour. With these added together you will need to start with 6.5 gallons to end up with 5 gallons in the fermenter.

The most common boil kettle for folks getting started with full volume boils is a turkey fryer pot. These are normally 7-7.5 gallon capacity {with another half gallon more to fill to the brim). This doesn't leave a whole lot of extra room when boiling 6.5 gallons of wort so you need to be quite vigilant to avoid boil over. It really helps to have a spray bottle of water handy as it comes to a boil. As the foam forms, keep spritzing it with water while gently stirring and the foam will drop right back down. Once the foam quits forming you don't have to watch it so close and then you have time to get things ready for the next step. Don't worry about trying to skim the foam off, that is a totally unnecessary step some folks try to tell you to do.

When figuring your evaporation rate, go by volume per hour, some folks go by percentage. A percentage rate is misleading as the rate changes with any change in volume. For any given pot at the same intensity of boil you will always boil off pretty much the same volume every time. If you are getting 1 gallon to boil off when you start with 5 gallons (20% boil off) you will still only boil off 1 gallon if you start with 10 gallons (10% boil off) in the same pot. Once you figure out the volume you lose to evaporation after a couple of batches, the math becomes real simple since this rate doesn't really change significantly (drier weather will cause more evaporation than humid weather).

The first brew is always a challenge since there is so much to learn all at once. Don't worry about it. You have made beer and beer is good. Adding the extra water to the carboy before or after the wort makes no difference at all though you should try to have as much of the water in the boil as you can. If your kettle doesn't hold enough, adding it post boil works just fine.

One thing about your process as described raises a slight bit of concern. You mentioned straining the wort as it goes into the fermenter. I hope this is after cooling the wort down to cool room temperature. Doing this with cooled wort is great because it introduces extra oxygen into the wort which the yeast needs for proper growth. Doing this hot is bad because it will oxidize the wort which will cause quick staling and a wet cardboard taste. The temperature at which you mix air into the wort can make the difference between world class beer and dumpenbrau.

Congrats on your first beer! Be sure to let us know how it comes out.

Wayne

As I am sure you know too well, the directions that came with the kit, left a lot open to interpretation...

So to be clear...I know it is simplified and I will do more things along the way, but bear with me...

1. Use a 7/7.5 boiling pot...about a gallon will evaporate and it will leave about .5 gallons of debris...resulting in 5.5-6.0 gallons of wort
2. Transfer once cooled about 5.5 gallons of my wort into my fermentation bucket (add the yeast) and seal it
3. After about 3 to 5 days transfer it via syphon into my 5 gallon carboy for another 1 to 2 weeks

If I have this part correct...I may ask for some clarification on steeping the grain and adding the malt....

Tell you what though...it is pretty damn cool even attempting this!!

Thanks for your feedback...

Yes, that's correct.

Fire away with the steeping questions-

Ok...again, pretty simplified; but,

I am going to be using the English Ale kit for my first Brew...

1. Fill my boiling pot with about 7/7.5 gallons of water
2. Put grains in steeping bag and steep at 150 degrees for about 30 mins
3. Remove the grain bag and bring the water to a boil
4. Add Malt at the boil and stir, spritz, etc. to prevent boiling over the pot
5. Once everything has settled down, keep it at a rolling boil while I follow the steps that I described above

I will ask some transferring questions once I get everything properly into my fermentation bucket...

Sheen wrote:

RogueKNB wrote:3. After about 3 to 5 days transfer it via syphon into my 5 gallon carboy for another 1 to 2 weeks.

Do some more research / reading about this point. Many people on this forum, myself included, skip this part and simply leave the beer fermenting in the primary for 1-2 weeks. Don't rush the beer out of the primary fermentor prematurely.

that's a big 10-4. secondary usually isn't necessary unless you're doing flavor additions or double pitching for a really heavy beer.