Adding water to batch

[NoTrubble]

Ok so I've read that a standard 5 gallon partial mash produces about 53 bottles of beer. So with this in mind would it be good advice to add water to make it an even 60 bottles?

Why or why not?

I know it will change the final gravity but I have to buy bottles at this point and I was thinking 60 bottles of something less than 6-7% alcohol would be ok.

Please tell me your experiences.

Thanks,
Skip

 

[menerdari]

I almost always get 48 bottles, leave it alone and use the extra bottles for your next batch.

 

[CCericola]

Why not? I'd rather have less beer brewed as it should taste then more of a watered down beer. That's me. It might be drastic, it might be mild..but in the end adding ~84 ounces of water will make change it.

 

[metanoia]

Like menerdari said, you're not going to get exactly 5 gallons/53 bottles exactly when it comes time to bottle. After making a few batches, you'll see that there are many factors that contribute to what your end volume of actual beer is: how much water you have pre-boil, how much evaporates when you boil, how much extra water you add to the fermenter (do you do that with partial? I know you do with extract), how much trub there is in the primary, how much you might rack to the secondary, adding the sugar water to the beer in the bottling bucket, etc.

I always figure a nice healthy 2 cases (48 bottles) of beer is what I'll end up with, and if I have to fill a few more bottles, then that's a bonus! Better than drinking watered down beer.

 

[NoTrubble]

On a partial mash I added the water up to about 5 gallons. I didn't factor in the addition of priming sugar and water nor the trub but was just figuring around 50 or so bottles.

As and aside I was looking to buy some bottles today. $16 for 24 qty 12oz sound about right? Seems kinda pricey investment and by the time I bottled 3 carboys I could have easily started kegging?

 

[metanoia]

I bought 48 bottles when I started, but now I'm just cleaning out commercial beer bottles to use. Costs a little more per bottle, but I'm already buying them for the delicious craft beer!

 

[Yooper]

Buy a case of Sam Adams and drink the beer. Then you have a case of bottles. I would NEVER buy empty bottles, as they are the same price when beer comes in them.

A five gallon batch generallly ends up with about 48 bottles in the end, more or less. Some really hoppy beers might have a little more trub, so there may be a few less bottles in the end.

I think good beer is better than watered down beer. But if you want to see if it'll work for you, when the beer is finished, take a sample and taste it and then add 25% water to it and see if it's improved. Or do that with any beer. And I would say that watering it down to get more bottles wouldn't be desirable.

 

[NoTrubble]

I just compiled a list of different beer bottles that work well and those that don't. Why? Because I'm not really a Sam Adams man any more. It's just bitter to me now.

I saw that there was a wiki post but I found some info on the web and compiled it into a PDF document. Is there any place to upload it? I'm not a wiki guy.

 

[unionrdr]

There are a few threads on here where we all listed the bottles we use. But here's a list of the ones I've collected.
Franziskaner
Paulaner
Sam Adams
Great Lakes
Michelobe (the ones with the ring around the base of the neck)
Magic Hat
Left Hand Brewing
Dog Fish Head
Harpoon
too name a few I can remember...

 

[brewguyver]

Don't forget Troegs and Victory. Also, flying dog labels are really easy to get off.

I may be giving a way a few cases of empty 12's. A buddy is moving to a smaller place and I can't store all of them. Local Pittsburgh pickup only.

 

[unionrdr]

Getting back to topic,I usually get 48 bottles out of a 5 gallon batch. A few more now & then. But plan on two cases on average.

 

[Transamguy77]

After I got the hang if brewing I would add some extra DME to compensate for the extra water I would add to make sure I had 5.5 gallons going into primary, now I add a few extra lbs of base malt.

As far as bottles go I bought my first 2 cases then I started asking friends an family for pop tops then I found out about the recycling center drop off and went dumpster diving. I could fill a 30 gallon tote in 1 shot which is about 6 cases, that held me over for a while.

 

[NoTrubble]

I tried contacting the wiki maintainer but his inbox is full. I'm going to go ahead and create a post called "Ultimate Beer Bottle List" for newbs like myself that need a quick reference.

 

[NoTrubble]

I went to purchase bottles today with having to drink 45+ bottles of beer. we ended up buying 36 24oz bottles plus a 12 pack of Sam Adams....glad I bought the bottles. I can only handle Sam Adams after the first 11 of them.

So $200+ later...

Always seems like there's something to buy.

Starting Ale to the chief, whitehouse honey ale next.