Deano

Recipes 

I started a batch with 5.5 gal of water and cooked it in my new kettle made from a keg. After the boil I placed it into Primary in a new glass carboy that is a little bigger than my other one. I never measured to find where the 5 gallon mark was in the carboy. My S.G. was 1.060 when it was supposed to be around 1.044. Anyway I let it do its thing for a week and moved it into secondary which has the 5 gallon mark on it and I am about 1/2 gal to 3/4 gal under the 5 gallon mark. Apparently I lost more volume during the cooking than I had anticipated. I took a gravity reading today and it was 1.026 and it is supposed to be around 1.011 F.G. The ABV is at 4.3% which is what it is supposed to be. Should I add water to bring the F.G. down to where it is supposed to be and bring the total amount to 5 gal or leave it alone?

lapaglia

Recipes 

Leave it alone

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Primary: 3 gallon cider S-04
Secondary: Valentine Apfelwein Clone 1 Gal
Bottled: Halloween Apfelwein Clone 1 Gal
On Deck: 90 Shilling Clone

Moonshae

Recipes 

You probably shouldn't have racked it to the secondary until it had finished fermenting...you're better off taking the gravity reading before racking rather than after.

Just leave it for now and let the gravity drop fully, then dilute it if you want to, but why bother? Just enjoy the higher gravity brew.

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"You never can tell with bees." --Winnie the Pooh

In kegs: Shae's Braggot; English Cider; Doppelbock; Semi-Sweet Mead, Raspberry Cider, Apfelwein, Belgian Golden Strong Ale
In Bottles: Raspberry-Vanilla Melometh; Cherry Melomel; Vanilla Metheglin; For Heaven's Sake;
In Secondary: Traditional Mead (basswood); Traditional Mead (honeysuckle); carrot cake mead; Pirate Ale; Ginger Beet Ale; American IPA, pumpkin ale
In Primary: Berliner Weisse
Up Next: Oud Bruin

Deano

Recipes 

The fermentation was complete. I don't believe it was going to drop any more. Like i posted earlier, the S.G. was higher than it was supposed to be in the instruction and the F.G. was higher as well but it came out to be the correct ABV. Is the Gravity reading higher due to the lesser volume? Adding water at the end of the boil should have brought the S.G. down to where it was supposed to be right? Bit if I should leave it alone then I can deal with 4.5 gal or so.

MikeG

Recipes 

Agreed, it is what it is. The ABV might be a bit higher and you may love it!