Coming up short?

[clay5769]

Hi all
I've done around 8 or so brews. Each time I come up short, meaning I brew 2 gallons of beer I use 16 oz swing top bottles. I should end up with 16 bottles of beer, but every time I end up 2 bottles or more short.

I only fill the bottles 1/2 way up the neck not to the top,
I fill the fermenter according to the instructions of that beer..

So my latest I put 1 gallon of water in the fermenter per instructions, I used 4 cups of water to boil the canned mixture. I added the 4 cups of mixture to fermenter

But this time I added a full gallon of cold water to the fermenter to top it off minus 4 cups so I'm hopeful that I will fill all 16 bottles. So including the wort and the water I should have a total of 2 gallons of beer


I hope I didn't mess it up with to much water?

Thoughts ?

[John Sand]

I remember that I was often a couple of bottles short when brewing HMEs. Sometimes my volume is still off in kegs. The trub (sediment) takes up some of your beer. I would buy and use a hydrometer to see what your gravities are. Also confirm that your measuring cups or pitchers are accurate.

[berryman]

I also had that problem coming up short when I first starting brewing MB kits. 256 oz in 2 gal. and sounds like you should get 16 16oz, but you always have trub loss. It takes awhile to learn how to correct that. I loose 1/2 gal to trub on a 5 gal batch.

[clay5769]

Thanks all.... what I did last 4 brews.

1 gallon cold water in fermenter. Add mix boiled with 4 cups of water , then for final fill up in fermenter I added 1 full gallon of water minus the original 4 cups of water..

I bottled one of them and got 16 bottles and there was a tiny bit leftover with trub .



So in theory I should have the full 2 gallons I guess.

[berryman]

I ferment 5.5 gals. I can fill a 5 gal. keg and have just enough left for a hydro sample. You have to adjust to get the proper gravity reading. Do you have a brewing calculator? Qbrew is a good one for starting out and is free and easy to use.

[clay5769]

Hi
No I'm doing the mr beer type kits.
No extra equipment to do any type of test.
I did just order a Hydrometer to do some testing I just got into the whole brewing thing in the last 2 or 3 months

[berryman]

Hi
No I'm doing the mr beer type kits.
No extra equipment to do any type of test.

Yes, I think I know what you saying. Qbrew is a free program that let's you put in what you are using and gives you a idea on what to expect. http://freshmeat.sourceforge.net/projec ... ngredients [url]https://www.thescrewybrewer.com/ The version I got as MB type things on it.

[clay5769]