31/2 gallons of brew

So I'm about to transfer my pumpkin ale to keg and after secondary I am only left with 31/2 gallons of beer. I way under shot the water. I'm wondering if I was to boil some water, to help against oxidation. Is it possible to add about 1/2-3/4 gallon of water to beer @ kegging. And would there be a bad taste

Gustavo said:

So I'm about to transfer my pumpkin ale to keg and after secondary I am only left with 31/2 gallons of beer. I way under shot the water. I'm wondering if I was to boil some water, to help against oxidation. Is it possible to add about 1/2-3/4 gallon of water to beer @ kegging. And would there be a bad taste

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31/2 is 15.5 gallons. I'm assuming you meant 3 1/2 or 3.5 gallons of beer.

Boiled water vs. not-boiled water is not going to affect oxidation. Using non-boiled water could theoretically contaminate your beer, but it's relatively unlikely.

You could add 1.5 gallons of distilled water to your beer to bring it up to 5, but you're going to have some really watery-tasting beer (IE, a 'light' version of your beer).

Did you take a final gravity reading? What did the original recipe call for as your final gravity?

Was this a five gal recipe?? if so then you got one hell of a strong brew. I say taste it as is. If its good then hell..bottle it. You can try a test with say a measured amount if beer then add water..taste then if it still tastes good then add to your batch with appropriate measurements from your test. Good luck.

Sorry yes 3 1/2 gallons of beer. It did call for 5 gallons. The OG was around 160 and I think it was suppose to be aroun 145-50. FG was around. 106. I can't remember the exact numbers.

I'd taste it first.

I think it'd be fine to dilute it with a little water. If your OG was 1.060 and final was 1.006 then that'd put it around 7% abv, I think. You may want to add 1/2 gallon at a time or something to make sure you're not thinning the body and flavor more than you'd like.

I'm wondering if I was to boil some water, to help against oxidation.

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I wouldn't add water to beer that's already been fermented. THAT will oxidize your beer. O2 has a good bit of oxygen dissolved in it.

I guess you think that the extra headspace in the carboy will promote oxidation? It won't. The beer has a layer of CO2 gas on top of it that is heavier than oxygen and displaces it, creating a blanket of protection from the oxygen.

Just leave the beer alone. It'll be fine. Next time, take good gravity readings and add top off water after cooldown PRE fermentation to hit your recipe OG.

Thanx. Just kegged it and was about 1 gallon short.

TopherM said:

I wouldn't add water to beer that's already been fermented. THAT will oxidize your beer. O2 has a good bit of oxygen dissolved in it.

I guess you think that the extra headspace in the carboy will promote oxidation? It won't. The beer has a layer of CO2 gas on top of it that is heavier than oxygen and displaces it, creating a blanket of protection from the oxygen.

Just leave the beer alone. It'll be fine. Next time, take good gravity readings and add top off water after cooldown PRE fermentation to hit your recipe OG.

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Not sure why you say this... isn't this exactly what the big American Adjunct Lager breweries do all the time? His situation is exactly akin to high gravity dilution brewing. As long as he boils his dilution water before hand AND treats like it fermenting beer - no splashing, aerating, etc. He should be able to reduce the oxygenation to inconsequential levels. He could dilute the higher gravity beer by about 10 points to where it should have been and end up with more beer that is more like what he intended to have in the first place.

LandoLincoln said:

31/2 is 15.5 gallons. I'm assuming you meant 3 1/2 or 3.5 gallons of beer.

Boiled water vs. not-boiled water is not going to affect oxidation. Using non-boiled water could theoretically contaminate your beer, but it's relatively unlikely.

You could add 1.5 gallons of distilled water to your beer to bring it up to 5, but you're going to have some really watery-tasting beer (IE, a 'light' version of your beer).

Did you take a final gravity reading? What did the original recipe call for as your final gravity?

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Boiling dilution water vs not boiling it will definitely effect the amount of oxygen introduced to the beer. At room temp, tap water has around 9 PPM of oxygen. A 20 min boil will greatly reduce this amount.

J187 said:

Boiling dilution water vs not boiling it will definitely effect the amount of oxygen introduced to the beer. At room temp, tap water has around 9 PPM of oxygen. A 20 min boil will greatly reduce this amount.

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True, but what I've read about oxidizing beer...it takes a heck of a lot more to produce a noticeable oxidized taste than 9 ppm.

But sure, if you want to err on the side of caution, boil the water to reduce the oxygen levels.