Fermentation Volume

[MrBarrySir]

Hi all,

Going to brew Greg Hughes' Saison from his book, I have a question about volumes. I'm looking to finish with 23l as his recipe states. How much should I be looking to finish the boil with to put into the fermenter in order to account for loss to the trub etc?

 

[duncans]

23l is usually the volume in the fermenter I think, not the amount bottled.

Assume a loss of 2-3 litres for first batch and see how it goes.

 

[mike77]

Just re-read your comment properly and edited my reply. Yeah as above. Probably a few liters. I would imagine the recipe is aiming for 23 in the fermenter

 

[MrBarrySir]

Ahhh, ok. I was under the assumption that the 23 litres stated in the book would be what i was to be kegging.

 

[Fil]

loss in the FV is minimal upto circa 500ml if you employ a steady tip when draining..

hops will absorb roughly 1.5l per 100g iirc
and trub will generally occupy deadspace (if any)

thing is no 2 breweries will be the same, so brew #1 will reveal things like your boil off rate and losses to trub/hop absorbtion, which will help you refine recipes for the future.

Dont get too concerned with hitting specific targets to n decimal places, you can top up with some excess hlt treated liquor or tap water if needed post boil

and as long as your final gravity is in the right ball park its a success,

as you brew more batches you will refine the variables peculiar to your brewery from the initial guestimates closer to hard values you can rely on ..

 

[MrBarrySir]

As long as I have enough to fill a corny keg that's fine. Thanks for the help booze brothers.

 

[Fore]

Took me 3 brews to start to tie down my system. I'm pretty sure now that I lose 2 litres in the boiler, so need 25 litres as a post boil target.

Just keep measurements at every stage and then later you can calculate what actually occurred, loss to mash tun, boil off, loss to trub.

On AG#3 I hit exactly 23 litres in the fermenter, but I was still wrong with boil off and loss to trub. It just so happened that the 2 errors cancelled each other out. Errors now corrected, I should have it tied down; AG#4 will prove it, or not.