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How much wort do you usually loose

B

bob_the_brewer

How much wort do you usually loose when siphoning? I brewed a batch a few days ago and stopped my siphon when I started sucking up cold break/hop material off the bottom. I measured what was left behind and it was almost a half a gallon. Seems like allot of wasted wort to me. I have tried the swirling thing but have never seen the nice pile settle out in the middle of the pot like they show in the books. I was curious what others experienced for quantities of lost wort and any ideas on how to minimize it. I did not use a hop bag this time but think maybe I will use one from now on.

Thanks
Bob
 
I usually lose 1-3 quarts, depending on how many hops I add. I don't siphon, I have a false bottom in my brewpot and use whole hops to help filter out the trub. I'd say you're pretty normal if you're leaving 1/2 gallon behind.
 
yeah, that's typical.  i lose roughly half a gallon.  i've started calculating in my loss so that it comes out even.
 
I have been making rather large batches in 55 gal barrels. Getting the final product out of the barrel is a real trick. I use a 'j' shaped tube and a pump. The big problem is the small about of carbonation in the beer can cause the pump to spin without any flow. The waste has been almost 5 gallons on each batch. There is a ton of sediment in the bottom and if the barrel is moved much it gets stirred up in a hurry.

Just setup a new fermenter (40 gal); it is a vertical tank with a spout on the side at the bottom. This seems to work much better and only wastes about a gallon or two.

Is the conical fermenter supposed to created less waste? How is it used? I would assume all the sediment falls into the cone, do you then drain off the sediment before filling your kegs or bottles?
 
Thats exactly how a cone is used. It works great to dump the drub and leave the good instead of attempting to pull off the good and leaving the junk. You'll love it.
 
I use a lot of 6.5 gallon carboys.  I experimented with a vibratory motor on a timer heavily taped to the side of the carboys.  This was done a few days before kegging or bottling at 6 hour intervals for 20 minutes.  It really brought the yeast and other trub from the sides of the carboy and seemed to compact the trub in the bottom.  The beer did not pick up that disturbed mess that runs into the beer.  I cut waste on average of 33%.

I'm going conical ASAP!!! ;D
 
I usually leave about a half a gallon behind in the boil pot so I target my brews for 5.5 gallons, that gets me 5 gallons in the fermentor.  On the same note I usually leave a quart or more of yeast slurry behind in the primary, so I pitch a quart of starter wort which gets me pretty close to 5 gallons in the secondary.  From secondary to keg I only lose about half a cup so that doesn't bother me, at least not too much!
 
I loose about a pint :eek:

What I started to do was everyday I will pick up the bucket by the handle and give it a good twisting, not shake.  I have noticed (Like the vibrating does for pc) that I get a very compact bed of trub and the run off is very clear into secondary and very little in the secondary.  There is still plenty of yeast left to carbinate.

Don
 
i'm a newbe to brewing just starting kit brewing for the first time,and was just for future references,why can't you just strain that stuff out after boil when putting it in the fermenting bucket.
 
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