Water water everywhere but how much do I need!!

[wolfshankland]

So I always have this problem. I am trying to brew a 5 litre batch of my own recipe but I always fall short. I'm using 700grams of two different grains and 200g of dme and I use a 12 litre stock pot.

Help me!!!

 

[MyQul]

Hi and welcome to the forum

I mostly make 10L batches using a 12L stockpot but very occasionally do 5L.

What are you doing with the grains? Is this a partial mash or a extract brew(so steeping the grains)? If partial;

First of all you need to determine your boil off rate. Put 5L of water in the pot and boil it for 30 mins. Then measure it again. Then double it for your hours boil. This is your boil off. So say you boiled the 5L for 30 mins and you ended up with 4.5L (so 500ml boiled off), you boil off would be 1L.
You only need to do this once for that pot no matter what the brewlength of your batch. As long as your using the same pot and heat source

Then you have your grain absorbtion. There are a few different rates but I find 1L for 1kg, works fine. So in your case grain absorbtion would be 700ml (700g/700ml)
Plus your brew length, so 5L

So to put it all together

Boil off (so 1L for my made up example) + grain absorbtion (900ml) + brewlength (5L) = 6.7L

 

[matt76]

Are you saying you've less than 5L in your FV when you come to pitch your yeast, or that for your 5L you're getting less than 10 X 500ml bottles out?

If it's the former:
- Firstly don't assume the level markings on your FV are accurate (mine are a little out)

- Secondly, you could try liquoring back - add cooled boiled water (or I use freshly opened bottles of supermarket mineral water) to top up your FV to the required level before you pitch the yeast.

You need to use a dilution calculator (e.g. Brewers Friend) to work out how this will reduce your OG.

But note down how much water you have to add - next time, add this amount of water to your brew kettle at the start of the boil to compensate for the various losses myqul described.

Just beware of over filling the brew kettle - you don't want a boil over!

 

[terrym]

So I always have this problem. I am trying to brew a 5 litre batch of my own recipe but I always fall short.

You have my admiration.
I certainly couldn't be arsed to only brew 5 litres of beer at a time, especially since it would only last me the equivalent of a few days of drinking. Plus a lot of the effort put in is the same whether its 5 litres or 20 litres.
Nevertheless I hope you get it right.

 

[Madhouse]

I do small batch too - been a bit of trial and error for me, last brew was short and I liquored back so I've increased my strike volume for the next batch to compensate.

 

[Cwrw666]

Nothing wrong with `liquoring back'. Posh way of saying you topped it up a bit after the boil. Who doesn't ever do this?

 

[Nicks90]

I've diluted all my ag brews to hit my desired OG.
Nothing wrong with that.

 

[Madhouse]

Learned a lot about this recently so thought I’d share what I’ve learned so far.

Rough rule of how much water you need is:

bottling volume + FV loss (to Trub) + boil off + volume lost to grain = water required.

Eg if you wanted 10L of beer, lost 2L to Trub, had a boil off of 2L/hr and 1.5kg grain you’d be looking at approx 10+2+2+1.5 = 15.5L.

 

[Clint]

Unless your tap water is awful why boil and cool it to top up?