Mystery of Missing Coopers

[cwrw gwent]

Last Saturday I made 21 litres of Coopers Stout with one kilo of medium spraymalt. I would have gone for the full 23 but wanted to avoid the yeast spilling over the top of the fermenting vessel. It happened anyway. I left it in an enclosed space at 22 to 19 degrees C for seven days and when I went to bottle it today discovered that the volume was now 17 litres. Where did the four litres (nearly a gallon) go?

[dunc]

perhaps the fairies supped it.

[cwrw gwent]

No - my fermentation vessel is a fairy-free zone. Has anyone else had this problem?

[Ditch]

Sorry, but; LMFAO here! Do ye have a Dog ....? (ROFF!)

[cwrw gwent]

Have a dog and cat but neither are suspects as both are strict chapel goers. Also have 21 year old layabout son....mmmm!!!

Coopers Stout ~ There's seven pints missing!

[Jack Hackett]

Have you breathalized your sons breath yet? or smelled it..
does it smell familiar?

[EoinMag]

Did you use a few litres to the trub at the bottom? I find I lose anything up to three litres on a brew.

[cwrw gwent]

No - the yeast et al was fairly firm and I managed to syphon as much liquid as was possible. No more than two pints of gunge remained to go on the compost heap.

The thing is, when I made up the kit on 7th November I topped it up to 21 litres and this volume had decreased to 17 litres by the following Saturday (14th), just before it was bottled. I filled 29 pint bottles, whereas I would have expected about 34 pints from the original volume. There was the usual Coopers explosion but not a great deal of liquid outside the fermenting vessel

My usual brew is Geordie Yorkshire Bitter. I make it to 23.5 litres (40 pints) and fill 38 pint bottles. It's reasonable to assume that two or three pints can be written off through trub and evaporation but I lost more like six.

Fortunately, I'm a great believer in quality rather than quantity so providing this stout turns out as good as people say it is I will not complain.