Insane Fermenter Losses

[bobofet]

I recently made an IPA and into the fermenter bucket wet 5.5 gallons. I used safe ale s-04 yeast, 2 packs re hydrated. I racked to secondary with 3 oz of hop pellets for 10 days and i had a thick yeast cake left in the bottom of the bucket. I also had a pretty sizeable yeast cake in my secondary bucket after I transferred into my bottling bucket. When i was done racking I only had slightly over 4 gallons. How on earth did I loose almost 1.5 gallons in the fermentor? this is the most Ive ever lost and I wont brew another IPA again if this is what I can expect. Is this typacle?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

for the most part it's hop absorption, and normal and your leaving wort around the hops also so I personally wouldn't do a secondary with a hoppy beer and would account for more wort to start with I generally brew a gallon more to start with on hoppy beers

 

[Hawkbox]

You could try gelatin fining, it would settle a lot of your particulate out and compact it on the bottom. Might help.

 

[ChicoBrewer]

Hmmm it isn't loss - it's trub. Adjust the recipe for 6 gallons in the fermenter.

 

[BOB357]

You probably transferred a lot of break material into the primary which, mixed with the yeast cake, made for some serious post fermentation loss. Once you figure the volume lost to hops and the yeast cake in secondary, it is what it is. Forget secondary, use a hop strainer and cold crash to reduce the fermenter losses and you really shouldn't even lose 1/2 gallon. If you can't cold crash, allow some extra time for the beer to drop clear and the sediment to compact.

 

[Hawkbox]

I tend to lose on average around 3 liters when I transfer to keg, which is around 3/4 of a gallon.

 

[J A]

I put everything from the kettle into the fermenter. I use a hop bag so there's not much in the way of hop residue, but there's usually a fair amount of break material. I count on 5.5 gallons for a single batch and 11 gallons for a double. I never fail to fill a keg and with the double batch I usually have a liter or two for carb-cap samples, depending on which fermenter I'm using and whether I dry hop.
I almost never secondary.

 

[Craigerrr]

I found this video on water calculations extremely helpful. You make your losses (absorption, boil off, kettle losses, trub losses) part of your water calculations, so you end up with the batch size you planned for.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&sour...IQxa8BCCcwAA&usg=AOvVaw0VTJzWxrN8ZFOD4xbU2nov

Hope this helps

 

[GFHomebrew]

Cold crashing sure does help to compact trub. I transfer just about everything to fermentor. I dont use alot of hops compared to some but yes hop absorption is another beer steeler.

 

[J A]

I found this video on water calculations extremely helpful. You make your losses (absorption, boil off, kettle losses, trub losses) part of your water calculations, so you end up with the batch size you planned for.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=#&ved=0ahUKEwjy0Mm4sLTcAhWM6YMKHQX-DTIQxa8BCCcwAA&usg=AOvVaw0VTJzWxrN8ZFOD4xbU2nov

Hope this helps

There's a water calculator in the Brew feature here. When you set your equipment profile values, the "water requirements" tab in the Brew Session lays it all out for you. As you brew and dial in the system, you can adjust your profile to make sure it's dead on.

 

[Craigerrr]

I'm not the OP, but Thanks J A
I have been doing manual calculations to date with pretty good success, but it is time for me to delve into using the BF calculator!
IMO though that the video that I posted gave me a really good understanding of how to make the water calculations, it helped me immensely.