Adding water after fermentation?

Well I have made my first homebrew and have started the secondary fermentation in a carboy. I have noticed I have lost some volume of beer due to evaporation during boiling time (i didn't use a cover) and because I left about .15 gallons or so on the bottem because I just couldn't get all of it up because of all the sediment I didn't want to get into the carboy. My guess is a No to my quest but here it is...

To get my volume back up to 5 gallons and I allowed to add water after my primary fermentation to get my volume back up?


Just if you are curious this is my first recipe I chose http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=3610

You can add some top-up water if you'd like, but you'll water it down slightly. If it's not that much, I'd just leave it as is. I have a batch of Russion Imperial Stout that ended up being a 4 gallon batch, but I'm going to leave it like that because I like it strong and bitter, just like my women. If you do add water, be sure to boil it first to drive off any oxygen, sanitize, and drive off any chlorine in your water.

Also, secondary fermentation is a misnomer. It's actually a clearing tank. Once the primary is done, all you're doing is letting more yeast fall out of suspension and aging it, which is a good thing.

So adding a bit more than 5 gallons for a supposed 5 gallon batch would be a good idea to take in some evaporation? That won't water down my beer right?

I would let it be. Adding water at this point risks 'watering it down'. It's best to have < 5 gals of good beer than to have 5 gals of 'watered down' beer.

In the future, note the OG of the recipe and use a hydrometer before you pitch the yeast. You can add water if your OG is high but try not to go lower than the target OG.

wzup97 said:

I would let it be. Adding water at this point risks 'watering it down'. It's best to have < 5 gals of good beer than to have 5 gals of 'watered down' beer.

In the future, note the OG of the recipe and use a hydrometer before you pitch the yeast. You can add water if your OG is high but try not to go lower than the target OG.

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I think it depends. Adding a gallon or so won't dilute it too much. I recently had to do this with my blond, because it had way too much alcohol and it turned out just fine.

I wouldn't top it off...It's better to have less than 5 gallons of beer at your correct OG then to have 5 gallons waterred down....Noone's brought it up yet, but I'm wondering if adding oxygen rich water wouldn't also perhaps cause oxygenation down the line.

Personally I'd leave it as it is. Though I wish there was a different phrase than "watering it down" to describe adding a little top-up water. I've had beers in skanky disreputable pubs that has been watered down, and it was gross tasting (as well as illegal). Adding half a gallon to a 4.5 gallon batch will mean the beer is slightly weaker and may change the balance of the ingredients a little, but not necessarily in a bad way. A lot depends on the recipe and on how closely you were following it, as well as your personal preference. Put it this way - if a beer comes out at 5.3% instead of 5.6%, I can't imagine many people would turn their nose up at it.

But having said all that, I'd still leave it as it is.

Revvy said:

Noone's brought it up yet, but I'm wondering if adding oxygen rich water wouldn't also perhaps cause oxygenation down the line.

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Yeah, you'd want to boil and cool the water before adding it.

This is your first batch right?.....Brew another batch right away, it'll take your mind of worry about this one...

Brewing your second batch is the only cure for "n00b nerves!"

Ok So i brewed a batch recently and I came out only have 4 gallons of beer instead of 5. At first I didnt think anything of it but my OG reading is 1.07 and my next reading was 1.18. It is a belgian wit and Im pretty sure the alcohol percentage is way to high for the estimate. And it is still very dark and too cloudy for a belgian wit, should I add more water?

shepherds said:

Ok So i brewed a batch recently and I came out only have 4 gallons of beer instead of 5. At first I didnt think anything of it but my OG reading is 1.07 and my next reading was 1.18. It is a belgian wit and Im pretty sure the alcohol percentage is way to high for the estimate. And it is still very dark and too cloudy for a belgian wit, should I add more water?

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Same answer as above..if you've already pitched the yeast, then accept the final beer as is, rather than running the risk of introducing an infection, and other issues....settle for 4 gallons of strong beer, and brew some more...

I'm with Revvy on this one.... the only way to take care of a brew you have concerns with is to brew another batch as soon as possible....

Or if it's too strong, you can water it down (when it's done fermenting, there's even less chance of infection from adding water). It's accepted practice to add water if you're looking to dilute beer: Guiness does it with some of their lower ABV stouts. As long as you're alright with flavor taking a hit, there's nothing wrong with adding water.

Though the thing I'm confused about in the original question....the OG was 1.07, but then your next reading shot up to 1.18? Is this right after pitching the yeast? Anyways, just think of watering down after it's fully fermented and conditioned....if it's too strong a flavor, it's alright to add water.

If you think you've ended up overstrong by boiling off to much, you can add water at bottling time by boiling more water with the priming sugar... But keep in mind you ARE watering it down.

I always allow for about a gallon of evaporation loss per hour of boil. So I add the extra water before hand.

On my first couple of brews I was short volume in the secondary. Afraid of oxidation due to the open space, I added pre-boiled and cooled down water. If you are only talking about a little bit of water, say a quart or less, it will not taste watered down. If you have to add more than that you will get some watered down-ness to the flavor but it tends to become less that way if left to bottle condition longer, I found out.

What I have done to correct this is; my brew pot is only 5 gallons so at the end of the boil I end up with, say, only 4 gallons of wort. I add pre-boiled and cooled water before taking OG and pitching the yeast. I always did this but, also, when I add this water to the primary I actually go up to about the 5.5 gallon mark on the bucket because the suspended material and eventual trub take up about 1/2 gallon of volume. Since I started doing this, I end up with right at 5 gallons of beer going into the secondary carboy and no issues in taste.

One day I will get a larger brew pot and not have to do all this. One day. And an auto siphon and a wort chiller and....

Dennis

shepherds said:

Ok So i brewed a batch recently and I came out only have 4 gallons of beer instead of 5. At first I didnt think anything of it but my OG reading is 1.07 and my next reading was 1.18. It is a belgian wit and Im pretty sure the alcohol percentage is way to high for the estimate. And it is still very dark and too cloudy for a belgian wit, should I add more water?

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Call it an Imperial Wit. Problem solved!!!

Seriously, it will be just fine as is, no need to risk the top-off water. As far as the color, it is next to impossible to brew a "White" beer with extract. Extract is boiled once when making it, and again when you are making your beer, and will generally produce beers with some color. Adding top-off water may make it a bit lighter, but won't change the hue.

davesrose said:

Or if it's too strong, you can water it down (when it's done fermenting, there's even less chance of infection from adding water). It's accepted practice to add water if you're looking to dilute beer: Guiness does it with some of their lower ABV stouts. As long as you're alright with flavor taking a hit, there's nothing wrong with adding water.

Though the thing I'm confused about in the original question....the OG was 1.07, but then your next reading shot up to 1.18? Is this right after pitching the yeast? Anyways, just think of watering down after it's fully fermented and conditioned....if it's too strong a flavor, it's alright to add water.

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I meant 1.018... typo. Im thinking about just adding a little bit of boiled then cooled. Like half a gallon. I dont think that should be too bad.
And I have heard many macrobrewers do it, so why can't I? I am going to brew another one either this weekend or next. Not sure yet tho.

If you add a gallon and a half of water to 4 gallons of beer that started at 1070, you'll end up with 5.5 gallons at about 1051 (if my math is right!!). 1044 - 1052 is the appropriate range for a wit.

I have corrected my OG before fermentation, but have never diluted the finished beer before. I'm not sure that you can totally de-oxygenate the water, but if you could be sure you're eliminating the possibility of oxidation, it should be OK.

shepherds said:

Ok So i brewed a batch recently and I came out only have 4 gallons of beer instead of 5. At first I didnt think anything of it but my OG reading is 1.07 and my next reading was 1.18. It is a belgian wit and Im pretty sure the alcohol percentage is way to high for the estimate. And it is still very dark and too cloudy for a belgian wit, should I add more water?

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I'm wondering how this one turned out? I had the same experience with my first all-grain recipe, a dunkel weisse that I brewed yesterday. O.G. came out to 1.07, which indicates a final alcohol percentage of 8-9%. I added about 1.5 litres of water before pitching the yeast (I recognize this isn't ideal, but my volume was low and that O.G. really scared me). I've still got room to add maybe another 2 litres or I could just let it be. But I've never been a big fan of the sweet-tasting extra hard beers.

Did you add any extra water to yours and did it turn out okay?

When we are talking about the beer being "watered down", does this just mean that the alcohol and hops will be slightly lowered, or will the beer really have an extra "watery" quality to it that it would not have had if you boiled off less water, and put it into the fermenter as 5.5 gals?

Hello,

I think I may have run into this problem too. Is there anything that can be added to the top off water before adding it to the fermentor to avoid the "watered down" taste such as adding some malt extract and or spices to the water and boil? I just made a pumpkin ale and before I added the pumpkin to my brew pot, I drained the juices into a jar. Could I add this juice to water along with spices to make almost a semi wort?

I plan on siphoning the brew out of my carboy and putting it into my bottling bucket, cleaning my carboy, then resiphoning from my bottling bucket back to the carboy for another 1-2 weeks ( I only have 1 carboy and would like to do a secondary fermentation). So, while the beer is in my bottling bucket, could I then siphon the water/spice/pumpkin juice into the mixture before I put it back in the carboy?

Sorry I hope I didn't hijack the thread, I just figured Id ask here rather than basically start the same topic again. Thanks

OK same thing with me. I brewed my first batch ever, and IPA and since it was late ( and I didnt see the gallon markers on the side) I thought I was ready to roll and was happy to see today that fermentation started. HOWEVER i'm just above 3.5 gallons so quite a bit short of 5, but i'm pretty sure my OG was right. I do like strong beer but should I do something about this to get drinkable beer?

If your OG was right (are you brewing extract or AG?), you better leave it be. There isn't a lot you can do now to get it fixed, at least not without seriously changing the profile of your beer.

I brewed yesterday, started with 6 gallons and ended up with about 4 7/8 gallons... I was aiming for 5.5....guess a little more boiled off then I thought. I was aiming for 1.06...got 1.071 OG so I was thinking about adding water, but it sounds like let it be is the way to go, yes?

Okay, so what if, hypothetically, you've got a 5 gallon batch of pumpkin ale with a HUGE trub, that also only comes up to the 4 gallon line. What if, in secondary, you were to add 1 further gallon of the same exact wort. (same ratios of pumpkin, water, malt, and spices, brewed that day) What then?

^

Mine did the same, but I was at 3.5 gallons after I racked it on bottling day, so I just added a 1/2 gallon of spring water to hit the 4 gallon mark, then bottled up about 35-40 of them just yesterday, I wanted 5 gallons, but oh well, 4 should do......

I brew using extracts ~2.5-3gal wort where you top off with cold water to bring it to 5gal... that being said I've topped it off up to ~5.5gal more than a few times and even put close to 6 gal once and never noticed any issues. not 'watered down' or lack of flavor or alcohol that i've i've noticed.

i'm definitely still a novice (have only brewed 10 batches over the last 7yrs) so i'm not sure this is technically okay... just my observations.

I actually just ran into the same issue but its a bit more extreme. I wrote a recipe for a porter and i wanted to try it out but my fermenter is full so i scaled the recipe down to 2.5 gallons and used my Mr Beer fermenter. Was supposed to be a 2 gallon batch but i lost almost half the liquid in the boil so its just over a gallon. This morning the fermentation was so violent that the fermenter had inflated and foam was oozing out the top. In this case.. should i add water or leave it alone?

Hi all, new to here. I'm an all grain brewer for over a year now and just thought I'd add my 2¢ to this topic. So, when I do my boil, I keep a pretty close eye on the volume with a home made measuring stick. If it drops below the recipe volume I take some hot water from the hot liquor tank and pour it through the mash and add that to top up the boil volume that way I'm not just adding pure water(I usually have a little extra water in the mash tun anyway because I love the taste of raw wort). I try not to add anymore after 10 minutes prior to flame out for sanitation purposes. I've added distilled water during fermentation to keep the volume right with no incident. Full disclosure, I'm usually only making 2.5 gallon batches so additional water volumes are quite low. Probably a quart would be on the high side during fermentation. During the boil I may add a quart or more. Seems like it depends on the humidity level of the brew day. I've had no problem getting 6.5%~8.0% beers doing it this way. From my experience, the only way I've ever gotten a watered down taste/feel is if I added water after kegging.