Adding water to fermenting beer

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mtbaesl

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So I brewed up a Guinness clone yesterday, everything went great. The only hiccup was that I came away with a freakishly high 92% efficiency, bumping my O.G. up from 1.046 (expected) to 1.057, which is really too high for style. I attribute this to a 90+ min sparge (fly sparge) vs my usual ~60 min. Instead of doing something intelligent, like adding water before the pitch, I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on. Now the beer is happily fermenting away, and I thought, I wonder if I could add water now to get the gravity closer to what I want? Every voice inside me seems to think this is a bad idea, but the question remains, can it be done? If it really is a bad idea, why? I know I'll have good beer as is, and it will just be a higher alcohol stout, so I'm not really worried, but I'm curious. :mug:
 
I had the same problem once (I accidentally added WAY too much DME) and added water to the primary.. At the time I only had a 5 gallon fermenter and there was no room for water additions. So I bought a 6.5 and added an extra half gallon or so of water.. It turned out fine for me... I couldnt tell and it got my OG down to where it should be.. I used bottled water instead of tap because I am a germ freak.
 
I almost always brew a slightly stronger beer than I want and put 5 - 5.5 into my carboy. That levaes room for krausen.

After a week (or two), once the ferment is done, I add water (usually with gelatin) to top off the carboy. So, yes, not only can you do this, but for me is is SOP (standard operating procedure).

BTW, I always boil and cool my water before adding. Might not be technically necessary, but makes me feel better.
 
I'd add water to get to the OG. That way, your IBU/SG ratio is still the same as you planned and you'll have the beer you planned on. Having a higher OG will give you a higher ABV, of course, and throw off the balance you had.

I'd add the water right away, but you can add it at any time.
 
Thanks for the insight guys. You have inspired me to add water to the fermenter. Since I have a little over 5.5 G in a 6.5 G carboy, I think I'll let the Krausen die down a little (maybe tomorrow), then add the needed ~1 Gallon to bring it down to style. Nice, that's a fair amount of extra beer!
 
I'd add water to get to the OG. That way, your IBU/SG ratio is still the same as you planned and you'll have the beer you planned on. Having a higher OG will give you a higher ABV, of course, and throw off the balance you had.

I'd add the water right away, but you can add it at any time.

He's almost 25% off. He's not gonna get to his intended gravity, but you bring up a good point.

You might consider boiling a bit of hops with your water. Your brew is going to contain more unfermentables than you intended, so you need to add a bit more hops. I do this all the time (recently, to an IPA that ended up higher than I wanted).

Boil the hops in a small pan and add to your larger water addition.
 
Don't you need something more than just water to properly isomerize the hop acids? In other words, will boiling hops in a pot of water actually DO anything?

Just a question for the science nerds, I really don't know the answer!
 
Don't you need something more than just water to properly isomerize the hop acids? In other words, will boiling hops in a pot of water actually DO anything?

Just a question for the science nerds, I really don't know the answer!

Just "heat energy". Chris Bible in BYO went over this just this month. I do this all the time. Ideally, you add the hops during the ferment since there is some (minor) interraction between the yeast and the hops. But I usually add them in the the third week after a taste.
 
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