Transferred my brew to the secondary carboy for 2 weeks and I want to bottle today but my carboy is only half full. I don't understand. Can anyone help me. Could it be evaporation? 2.5 gallons is missing?
If you had a full carboy to start and you sealed the top with an an airlock/bung then I would begin interviewing procedures with the other two drinkers pictured in your avatar : )
2.5 gallons of evaporation in 2 weeks? From a carboy capped with an airlock? I do not believe this is what happened. Also, it is unlikely that you needed to put this beer in secondary in the first place, but that doesn't speak to your problem.
My question is, missing compared to what? Meaning, was the secondary actually full two weeks ago? Or was there supposed to be 5 gallons in the kettle at the end of your boil, so you figure half has gone missing, without being able to pinpoint when it "disappeared"? So in other words, here is a possible scenario. You thought you had 5 gallons in your kettle at the end of the boil, but you really only had 4.5. You left behind a gallon of trub when you racked into your primary fermenter. Then when you racked to secondary, you left behind a gallon of yeast and gunk. Now you look at your secondary and you say, "Where did my beer go?" The problem with this scenario is that 2 gallons is a lot to lose in this manner. I am sometimes very conservative when I rack, to keep my beer as clear and clean as possible, but I still don't think I've ever left a gallon behind. If I did, I would know about it. Any chance your carboy is leaking? That's a much more plausible explanation than evaporation.
I snuck into your crib and drank two gallons of semi-finished beer straight from the carboy and back washed after every sip.
This. It's amazing how five gallons of wort turns into 3 gallons of beer. Have to account for boiling, trub loss, loss from racking, etc.
I feel like I almost always lose at least a half gallon or even a bit more to trub, spills, dry hops, gravity samples, etc. But 2.5 gallons? Hard to say...
Who was it that had the carboy with WLP99 and would pour out of it when they wanted a buzz, then top it back off?? My guess is trub loss and a 6.5g secondary carboy.
you know, i laughed out lout to myself last night when i went to mess with my keg and noticed how light the keg was. I thought of this post since i kegged that blonde ale 3 weeks ago and it feels almost empty.
