Quick AG Question

Did the Bee Hive porter today from the recipes forum. Didn't leave instructions for volumes for the mash or sparge so I guestimated. Anyways, came out with 4 gallons after the boil and its winter here so I cannot use my chiller to cool the wort. Its sitting in a snowbank right now, but I was thinking of topping it off with a gallon of cold water, would this affect the beer?

what is your gravity reading right now?

I can check but it may be too hot to take the reading.

I dropped my gravity reader into the pot and it hit the bottom....

In the future, you are typically going to want to mash with about 1.4 qts/pound and then sparge with whatever volume will get you to your pre-boil volume, which should be about a gallon-gallon and a half more than what you want to go into the primary.

You should also look into another method of cooling the wort than snow, which tends to insulate rather than cool. It would probably work pretty well to throw some of that snow into a sink or tub full of cold water to bring down temps.

When you do figure out your gravity, here's a calculator that will tell you how your gravity will change with added water.

uh... usually you would sanitize something like a turkey baster to draw a sample and put the hydrometer sample tube in the refrigerator.

anyways--- the target OG was likely in excess of 1.065, right?

if your current gravity is a lot higher than 1.065, then yes I guess you could dilute it. If it is lower than the target OG, it just depends on whether you want 5 gallons of weaker beer, or 4 gallons of the "right" beer. my two cents.

NorsemenRugby58 said:

I dropped my gravity reader into the pot and it hit the bottom....

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Should rise back up as the wort cools. In the future take a sample from the wort and get the gravity from there. You can cool a small sample down much quicker. Do you have anything similar to a graduated cylinder to do that with?

well our OG is spot on, 1.063....we just lost 1 gallon. oh well

Yeah, probably the best move at this point. Just adjust your mash and sparge for the next brew. If you have no brewing software, there's a batch sparge calculator on the website I gave you. Always gets me right where I need to be.

thanks for your help!

NorsemenRugby58 said:

Its sitting in a snowbank right now

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Out of curiosity, did you put the brew pot directly in the snowbank? I've been putting mine into a tote with a snow and water mix, because I thought putting it directly in the snow would insulate it instead of cooling it.

Just leave it, you'll have 4 gallons of awesome beer instead of 5 gallons of mid-awesome beer.