[Fire Rooster]

Bottled the subject porter today that I missed the original SG on.
I think I discovered part of my issue.
The final volume was 6 gallons...not 5!
Rather than changing a bunch of things, I think I will make a 5 gallon mark my primary fermenter.
Sorry for the false alarm!

I struggled with final fermenting wort volume for awhile, you will get it with time and experience.

When I purchased 2 HDPE Speidel fermenters, the first thing done was pour a gallon at a time
and mark the outside with a permanent marker.  Continued until 4 gallons then marked in
1/2 gallon intervals.  Boiling 10 minutes less/more changes volume.  Using dried leaf/pellet hops
changes volume.  Grain absorption varies.  Amount of rinse/sparge water changes volume.
My process is a concentrated boil, and always use top off water to hit my volume/chill.
It's an ever evolving process when actually doing it, I'm still tweaking things.

Cheers

[BrewBama]

One thing I’ve learned over the years is I get what I get. 

I used to stress about hitting the exact numbers. Now, +/- 1/2 gal, a few degrees here or there, a gravity point or two between friends is fine in my brewery.

Environmental conditions such as grain moisture, humidity, pressure, temp, etc. or even recipe design such as more/less hops, grain, etc. can play a larger roll in the outcome than I care to calculate.

Precision is no longer required or expected around here. I just do the math on what I get. I don’t run such a tight budget or QA spec that it matters. I do this for fun and something to drink when the day is done.

Close enough is good enough. Cheers!

[ynotbrusum]

Bottled the subject porter today that I missed the original SG on.
I think I discovered part of my issue.
The final volume was 6 gallons...not 5!
Rather than changing a bunch of things, I think I will make a 5 gallon mark my primary fermenter.
Sorry for the false alarm!

I struggled with final fermenting wort volume for awhile, you will get it with time and experience.

When I purchased 2 HDPE Speidel fermenters, the first thing done was pour a gallon at a time
and mark the outside with a permanent marker.  Continued until 4 gallons then marked in
1/2 gallon intervals.  Boiling 10 minutes less/more changes volume.  Using dried leaf/pellet hops
changes volume.  Grain absorption varies.  Amount of rinse/sparge water changes volume.
My process is a concentrated boil, and always use top off water to hit my volume/chill.
It's an ever evolving process when actually doing it, I'm still tweaking things.

Cheers

Amen to that.  I also think doing a mash out can gain a bit of volume by way of lauter viscosity being reduced, especially if doing  BIAB and letting the bag fully drain or squeezing it.

[jeffy]

Bottled the subject porter today that I missed the original SG on.
I think I discovered part of my issue.
The final volume was 6 gallons...not 5!
Rather than changing a bunch of things, I think I will make a 5 gallon mark my primary fermenter.
Sorry for the false alarm!

I struggled with final fermenting wort volume for awhile, you will get it with time and experience.

When I purchased 2 HDPE Speidel fermenters, the first thing done was pour a gallon at a time
and mark the outside with a permanent marker.  Continued until 4 gallons then marked in
1/2 gallon intervals.  Boiling 10 minutes less/more changes volume.  Using dried leaf/pellet hops
changes volume.  Grain absorption varies.  Amount of rinse/sparge water changes volume.
My process is a concentrated boil, and always use top off water to hit my volume/chill.
It's an ever evolving process when actually doing it, I'm still tweaking things.

Cheers

Amen to that.  I also think doing a mash out can gain a bit of volume by way of lauter viscosity being reduced, especially if doing  BIAB and letting the bag fully drain or squeezing it.

Same here. After it’s in the fermenters, I go back to beersmith and adjust the efficiency for the final volume. It is almost never exactly what was planned, but usually pretty close.

[denny]

One thing I’ve learned over the years is I get what I get. 

I used to stress about hitting the exact numbers. Now, +/- 1/2 gal, a few degrees here or there, a gravity point or two between friends is fine in my brewery.

Environmental conditions such as grain moisture, humidity, pressure, temp, etc. or even recipe design such as more/less hops, grain, etc. can play a larger roll in the outcome than I care to calculate.

Precision is no longer required or expected around here. I just do the math on what I get. I don’t run such a tight budget or QA spec that it matters. I do this for fun and something to drink when the day is done.

Close enough is good enough. Cheers!

Great attitude!  Same here.

[goose]

One thing I would like to throw out here is the liquor to grain ratio.  Now I may be full of crap, but I read a post a long time ago here on this forum that using 1.5 quarts/lb. would give you a bit better efficiency than 1.3 quarts/lb.  I used to do a really thick mash (1 quart/lb.) with my ESB after reading what was suggested in Ray Daniel's book years ago and got crappy efficiency.  I upped it to 1.5 quarts/lb. and the efficiency improved and got me closer to the calculated pre-boil gravity numbers.  I now use that ratio for all my beers.  You can use less sparge liquor with this ratio since you will back off the amount you need to sparge by the amount of extra mash liquor.

Just my 0.02.