Taking a poll on what the avg. yield is from a 5 or 5.5 gal boil - I
usually end up with 3.5 - 4 gals at most after bottling.

I do a 6.5 gal boil. after an hour or so it boils down to 5.5 where I
ferment 5.5 gal, then rack 5 gal to a keg.

i.e. I end up with 5 (give or take 0.1 gal) gallons at kegging.

(Do a larger boil...I think there are efficency problems if you are
doing all grain. if not, and you are doing extract are your beers
ending with a high starting gravity?)

For me, a 12 gallon start in a 12.5gal pot ends up between 8.5 and 9 gallons
after 90 min


"lucky4fingers" <only4@wheresTheFifth.com> wrote in message
news:Xns98BEB87E3433wheresTheFifthcom@69.28.173.184...[color=blue]
> Taking a poll on what the avg. yield is from a 5 or 5.5 gal boil - I
> usually end up with 3.5 - 4 gals at most after bottling.[/color]

I start with 6.25 gallons and end up with 5.5 at the end of a 60 minute
boil. My boils aren't that vigorous because I've got a 7 gallon pot.

[BierNewbie]

lucky4fingers, sounds like you need a larger pot to boil the entire wort. You get better hop utilization and better beer boiling the entire volume. Get a 10 gallon (40 quart) pot to do 5 gallon batches. That lets you start with 6.5 or 7 gallons to end up with 5-5.5 gallons and gives plenty of room for the vigorous boil. You then will get 5.5 gallons to start in your primary which after racking, will leave you a full 5 gallons of beer in the secondary.

My starting volume for my last batch was 6 gal. and I ended up with 4
1/2 gal. and added water to achieve 5 gal. It took a long time to get
the wort up to a boil. I didn't want to cover the kettle because I
didn't want to lock in dms. Will this be burning off before the actual
boil? Can I leave the kettle covered until the temp. is around 205F?

In rec.crafts.brewing lucky4fingers <only4@wheresthefifth.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> Taking a poll on what the avg. yield is from a 5 or 5.5 gal boil - I
> usually end up with 3.5 - 4 gals at most after bottling.[/color]

It differes slightly for everyone, but I start my boils at 6.5-6.75
gallons and always end up with around 5.5 gallons in the primary,
which allows for some loss on the way to bottling.

We always end up with 50-52 bottles per batch.

-----------------------------------------------
John Bleichert [email]syborg@earthlink.net[/email]
The heat from below can burn your eyes out!!

Fung is brewing, and brewing is fung. <k03019454@gmail.com> wrote:[color=blue]
>My starting volume for my last batch was 6 gal. and I ended up with 4
>1/2 gal. and added water to achieve 5 gal. It took a long time to get
>the wort up to a boil. I didn't want to cover the kettle because I
>didn't want to lock in dms. Will this be burning off before the actual
>boil? Can I leave the kettle covered until the temp. is around 205F?[/color]

You can leave the kettle completely covered until
you achieve a boil. DMS will be driven off after that
point. I do that, and continue the boil with the pot
about 80% covered. I've never had DMS problems with
my beer.
And to be entirely clear, four things are helpful in
reducing DMS levels in finished beer: a vigorous boil,
a 90-minute or longer boil, limiting stand time after
the boil, and chilling the wort rapidly.
--
Joel Plutchak

"Things just fall apart." - Now They'll Sleep (Belly)

Start out with about 5.5 gal. Add ice during the chill process to
replace what was lost during boil and helps chill faster.
7lbs ice approx. 1 gal water.

[BierNewbie]

[QUOTE=mckeyes;12727]Start out with about 5.5 gal. Add ice during the chill process to
replace what was lost during boil and helps chill faster.
7lbs ice approx. 1 gal water.[/QUOTE]

I suppose your ice is unlike any around here and completely contaminate free.