Help with dilution please?

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JonBrew

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So I've got a beer that i want to dilute and rack to bottles. Current wort volume is 10L. The current (final) gravity is 1.022 ABV 9% (approx). I want to dilute the beer down to about 7% abv.

In order to do this should I treat my current gravity as my starting gravity with my desired gravity being 1.015/14 to reach 7%.

Then using a dilution calulator (on brewer's friend), if I enter in these numbers it states that I need to add 5.71L of water to reach the new gravity.

Is this right? I feel like adding half of my current wort volume should dilute my ABV by more than that?!

Anyone able to help me with this?
 
5.7 liters would be to high of a dilution rate in my opinion. I'm not sure how the BF calculators work, but they seem to pertain to preboil calculations. There are most likely other automatic defaults figured in.

I would estimate 2.3 to 2.7 liters for the dilution. This will also dilute IBU.

Try a practical experiment. Take a hydrometer sample and record the SG. Dilute the sample by increasing the volume 32%, (% difference between 22 and 15) and test SG again.
 
5.7 liters is too much.

Total volume needed to achieve 7% would be (9/7)*10=12.85L

12.85-10=2.85 L to add


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
An easy way to think about it is if you double the volume, you'll halve the alcohol

So (9/4.5)*10=20L

9 being your start alcohol
4.5 being halve
10 being start volume
20 being diluted volume


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
thanks to both for your very helpful replies! :)

2.85 litres it is! is this level of dilution likely to adversely effect taste etc?
 
As flats said it will dilute ibu, so it'll affect it that way...

Not sure how else it will affect it tho. Just make sure you boil and chill the water first to get rid of any nasties


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
JonBrew said:
So if it affects IBU will it make it sweeter?
Click to expand...

Take a hydrometer sample, split it between two glasses. Dilute one as close as you can to how the 10 liters would be diluted. Do a taste test on the two samples. They will not taste the same as the fully conditioned beer, but it will give you an idea of what the change in bitterness and flavor will be.
 
JonBrew said:
So I've got a beer that i want to dilute and rack to bottles. Current wort volume is 10L. The current (final) gravity is 1.022 ABV 9% (approx). I want to dilute the beer down to about 7% abv.

In order to do this should I treat my current gravity as my starting gravity with my desired gravity being 1.015/14 to reach 7%.

Then using a dilution calulator (on brewer's friend), if I enter in these numbers it states that I need to add 5.71L of water to reach the new gravity.

Is this right? I feel like adding half of my current wort volume should dilute my ABV by more than that?!

Anyone able to help me with this?
Click to expand...

My wine blending calculator says to dilute with 2.86 liters.
It won't be perfect, but you could boil hops in the dilution water to achieve a desired IBU hop "tea" and dilute with that. I agree that a bench trial is in order before you treat the entire batch.
 

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