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As a newbie iam curious as to why kits have a finished volume of 23 litres and not say 20 litres. or 15 or 10 etc,etc and what effect does it have on the finished brew if you only make it to E.G. 18 litres

Well, it's just a nominal value. You certainly can make it up to 19L or so (ppl do it all the time), you'll get a stronger, hoppier brew. I guess you could also make it up to like 30L as well to get a light beer, but I've never heard of anyone doing this.

Oh, and it's not always 23L. The Malt Shovel cans in particular are designed to be added to water without any additional fermentables, and are made up to 11L or so I think.

Originally, it would have been 22.5L per kit, and that value was chosen because 22.5L = 30 long necks, a nice round number.

I guess 23L is just some simple rounding on the manufacturers part.

Personally, I fill to 22L unless I have specific instructions from a special kit or I'm working to a style or recipe that better suits a smaller and denser volume.

Actually, that makes me think. Often volumes specified in recipes are 19L or 23L, which are equivalent to 5 or 6 US gallons, respectively.

I personally think that the main reason that this is the case is that the companys who brought them out guarantee you get 30 longnecks out of one brew so to cover there asses they make it 23 litres when in fact you will get 30 bottles out of 22 litres providing you use a good yeast and the trub sits firm on the bottom, you will get a better beer out of just about any kit if you drop a couple of litres off the total
I personally dont worry to much about the quantity but more the quality, either way you will deffinately save money

Agree with rwh - it is to do with imperial measurements.

Muddy

Yep, I reckon it's imperial measurements too.

All of Charlie Parpazian's recipes in "the complete joy of homebrewing" are for 19L, or 5 US gallons. It just seems to be a good quantity to work with, rounded off to the nearest US gallon.

I'll add my two bob to this.

It's definatly to do with the fact that 5 UK gallons = 23 litres = 6 US gallons. I doubt it has to do with long necks as the home brewing trade started off else where and after living in the UK for a while they don't have 750ml long necks. Bottled real ale comes in a UK pint. Originally the Homebrew scene in Aus was stocked from UK products so that is where we get the 23L (UK 5 gallons) from. Some of the old timers may correct me if I'm wrong.

I don't think that only UK products were available at any point. It used to be cans of malt extract made for the food industry. Then came Coopers. That's what I've heard anyway.

on a slightly related note... Could someone tell me if the time taken for primary fermentation to complete is lengthen due to less volume. example: kit and kilo + 23L takes ~ 5-8,9 days depending on temperature and what not. so could it be possible that if Kit and Kilo +20L could take longer.

Asking because at the moment i've a pale ale on and its been close to 14 days and it has been quite warm here.

It's ready for sure, unless the yeast is dead or something.

my guess would be that it is so after leaving behind the sludge below the tap you are left with 20L of beer if you don't tip the fermenter. I remeber actually figuring out with my first batch how much the difference was between what I started with and what ended up in bottles and I'm pretty sure 3L was it.

OK... except I definitely tip the fermenter! There's no way I'm wasting good beer!

rwh wrote:OK... except I definitely tip the fermenter! There's no way I'm wasting good beer!

Im with you there, i probably lose about 100 ml, in saying that though if you tip it carefully then you still leave all the crud behind so get out as much as you can

lol, since my first batch I have tipped the fermenter as well. Just with my first batch i didn't want to muck it up.

I helped a friend bottle the other day and we bottled EVERYTHING. The final stubbies have a good inch of sediment in the bottom but the beer came out even better than that from the beginning and middle of the batch.

evanmit wrote:lol, since my first batch I have tipped the fermenter as well. Just with my first batch i didn't want to muck it up.

I helped a friend bottle the other day and we bottled EVERYTHING. The final stubbies have a good inch of sediment in the bottom but the beer came out even better than that from the beginning and middle of the batch.

I always rack and bulk prime so sediment isnt an issue while bottling, i can just about pour every drop out of one of my bottles without any cloudiness at all, and only a thin layer of sediment on the bottom

One of my homebrewing mates was share-housing last year, and a a group they got kit&kilo brewing down to a fine art. (apparently there were four of them in the house, brewing a batch a week, and were drinking only slightly less than that!) Anyway, one of their "innovations" was to use a coffee filter to strain the last couple of liters of sludgy beer from the bottom of the fermenter.

I tried it once, but now I can't be bothered waiting for it to strain for the sake of two stubbies, and maybe the added risk of oxidation and infection.

evanmit wrote:lol, since my first batch I have tipped the fermenter as well. Just with my first batch i didn't want to muck it up.

I helped a friend bottle the other day and we bottled EVERYTHING. The final stubbies have a good inch of sediment in the bottom but the beer came out even better than that from the beginning and middle of the batch.

I also tip my fermenter & bottle just about every drop. The last 3 or so bottles (stubbies) we call Cow Pats. These bottles are marked & left in the brew achive to settle.

You can use these 'yeast stores' to make new starter too.