HELP!! Over shot OG and undershot volume

Had a problem with my Nut Brown Ale recipe today. Tried doing a 6 gallon BIAB (first time for a brew this size) and I had a target volume of 6 gallons with an OG of 1.058 and I ended up with a 5 gallon batch with an OG of 1.078. Just realized this after it has been in the fermentor bucket for the last 90 minutes with the yeast pitched.

Should I just leave this as is or add a gallon of water at this point and transfer to a larger bucket?

[The source of my error is that I assumed I would have an efficiency of 60% with BIAB since this was my first large BIAB session and I had far more boil off than expected.]

You could boil and cool a gallon to dilute it some, or leave it as the tasty beer as it will probably be. Seems like you understand how it all works, so do whatever you feel is right!

I boiled a gallon and added a small amount of hops for 20 minutes in order to keep the IBU/SG ratio in the target area of my original recipe. It is cooling in a snow bank as I write this and I will add these prior to going to bed.

I love snow banks.

If you're brewing to style then dilute it, but if not I say consider it high eff. and enjoy the higher abv!

I think you did the right thing in diluting the beer. Your fg likely would have been a bit higher otherwise.

afr0byte said:

I think you did the right thing in diluting the beer. Your fg likely would have been a bit higher otherwise.

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I was concerned with having too high of a FG and the beer being too sweet. I boilled 1 gallon of water with a 1/4 cup of DME and .5 oz of hops for 20 minutes in order to try to get back the IBU/OG ratio needed.

I had a similar problem with a small batch. I was trying to brew a 2.5 gal lager using Biab. I ended up with 1.5 gal of 1.079 wort. I pitched the yeast anyway. Two days later I brewed a second 1.5 gal batch of 1.026 wort with .25 ounce of hops and a 30 min boil. I then added this to the already fermenting batch. Using beer smith I calculated the gravity of the two batches combined. Its was roughly 1.051. The batch fermented down to 1.011 in an additional 5 days. I am currently lagering the beer, but it tasted and smelled great going into secondary.

Agent Brew said:

I had a similar problem with a small batch. I was trying to brew a 2.5 gal lager using Biab. I ended up with 1.5 gal of 1.079 wort. I pitched the yeast anyway. Two days later I brewed a second 1.5 gal batch of 1.026 wort with .25 ounce of hops and a 30 min boil. I then added this to the already fermenting batch. Using beer smith I calculated the gravity of the two batches combined. Its was roughly 1.051. The batch fermented down to 1.011 in an additional 5 days. I am currently lagering the beer, but it tasted and smelled great going into secondary.

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Thanks for posting this. I had not considered adding a second brewing session two days later to be a viable option but it is good to know that it can work for future brewing if needed.