Messed up; 3.5 gallons fermenting; NEED HELP

I could have swore I started with 5 gallons (and a little extra) and had my wife double check me. The beer has been fermenting 7 days and I just turned the light on in that unused bathroom it is sitting in and I could see the liquid level at only 3.5!?!? Could I have lost that much in the boil? Prob not, I prob F'd up. I thought the 6 gallon bucket seemed nearly full so I paid no mind. I haven't popped the top to confirm but seems pretty evident.

Can I distill some water, bring it down to 70 degrees, and add it now? What do I do? Big mahalo and thank you in advance for helping out a newb!

you started with 5 gallons before you boiled? It's common to lose about 1G per hour of boiling...

I wouldn't add water at this point. You'll end up diluting the beer down and ending with low alcohol and watered down flavor. Just let it go, watch the gravity until it stabilizes and bottle your 3.5 gallons and enjoy. Next brewday, watch your volumes a bit closer. Id suggest you try boiling a few gallons of water in your boil kettle for 60-90 min to figure out your boil off rate before your next brew. That way you know how much wort you need, preboil.

Agree with Doc, I wouldn't add water now.

Thank you for the advice. So if the beer was originally supposed to be 5.5% alcohol, and I added the appropriate amount of yeast and sugar (and a little extra per a modified recipe so maybe 6.5%), am I now going to have like a barley wine or worse type of alcohol level because it's only 3.5 gallons?

is there a puddle of beer in the bathroom?

Johnnyhitch1 said:

is there a puddle of beer in the bathroom?

Click to expand...

No. I checked for that. It would smell strong if there were too.
Maybe my wife has been drinking it in the middle of the night! haha

What was your starting gravity before fermentation started? You would have easily figured something was off, if you took a reading. It would be way off in that case.

FATC1TY said:

What was your starting gravity before fermentation started? You would have easily figured something was off, if you took a reading. It would be way off in that case.

Click to expand...

Another NEWB mistake. I had the wife steel some wort with a sanitized baster and I sealed it up and put the airlock on. When I went to take the reading she had not got the amount of wort I needed and the hydrometer didn't even float a bit.....or is it the spec gravity the reason it didn't float?

This is only my 3rd batch and the 1st was amazing with no readings, so I just said whatever and kept the bucket closed for fear of infection.

31FIFTY said:

Thank you for the advice. So if the beer was originally supposed to be 5.5% alcohol, and I added the appropriate amount of yeast and sugar (and a little extra per a modified recipe so maybe 6.5%), am I now going to have like a barley wine or worse type of alcohol level because it's only 3.5 gallons?

Click to expand...

You can't know the actual ABV % unless you took accurate gravity readings prior to fermentation. You could assume you'll have a higher alcohol content as you have the same amount of fermentable sugars in a smaller volume, however you can't calculate the % without gravities.

As you stated in another post regarding the first beer you made "without numbers", this will probably turn our fine, but if you think it may be higher ABV due to low volumes, give it more time to condition both in bulk (primary) and in the bottles to carbonate. I'd suggest at least 3 weeks in each.

Will do. Thanks again for the advice.

My schedule lines up so that I can brew one more batch on Labor Day and then bottle both the weekend before I travel, so that will work out perfect.

We'll see how the beer ends up though.

Aloha again. I was thinking, what if I got a small amount of appropriate specialty grains and hops and did another small boil and added that to the beer and let it condition in secondary?

31FIFTY said:

Aloha again. I was thinking, what if I got a small amount of appropriate specialty grains and hops and did another small boil and added that to the beer and let it condition in secondary?

Click to expand...

Without knowing the original gravity, or original volume, you don't know what to add to get it where you want it. Why don't you just leave this batch alone for another week or two, bottle it and start another batch. And take better notes next time.

31FIFTY said:

Aloha again. I was thinking, what if I got a small amount of appropriate specialty grains and hops and did another small boil and added that to the beer and let it condition in secondary?

Click to expand...

I wouldn't.. The beer would be done, or close to done fermenting, and while you could introduce some sugar to the yeast and let it ferment, you really won't get much from the specialty grains by just steeping them, so it won't do you much good to guess.

If you want more beer, brew the same batch again, but make enough to get a full batch, and blend it with your other beer.

In the future, I'd suggest getting a hydro reading before you call it a day. I always get a sample before I put it in the fermenter, and then chill it in the fridge to the correct temp, while I'm cleaning up and putting all the stuff away.