4 gallon on 5 gallon recipe

Obviously I am a new guy... made my batch a little too thick i guess with only about 4 gal in a 5 gal carboy looked up question and didnt find proper answer so.. should i just let it be, dont want to water it down so will I just have a more powerful brew or... thanks in advance

After you put your wort into the fermentor , you need to add water to bring it to the correct original gravity, this will usually bring your batch to around 5 gallons.

What was your OG vs. expected OG?

Most extract recipe kits instruct using a partial boil (2.5 gals) with adding top off water in the fermenter to 5 gals pre-pitch.

However, I'd rather have the correct gravity vs. the "correct" volume.

wherestheyeast said:

...I'd rather have the correct gravity vs. the "correct" volume.

Click to expand...

This is one of those details that you start to value after brewing a few. Took me 5 batches to understand the importance.

I typical have too high an OG at 5 gals (typically .005 +.008) doing partial mashes, but leave it at the higher OG rather than adding more volume once I'm at 5 gals. Need some headspace in those 6 gal carboys. So my beer will be a bit stronger, which I don't mind personally.

None of the kits (even partial mash ones) go into any details on correct OG or correcting the OG, which is very easy to do *before* adding the extra water.

Thanks guys guess just a high og not a kit brew / 7lb light malt 1lb crystal malt 80 3/4 oz columbus hop @ boil And 1 oz of citra last ten min taste good looks dirty though

You can easily add water. Also, using extract, the OG will be right unless you spilled a bunch of it or something.