Stupid beginner mistake.....

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nodough

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Hi, I'm completely new to homebrewing and am really looking forward to making some tasty brews. Unfortunately I've already screwed up. I'm making a 5 gallon Brewers Best IPA. Everything was going fine until 5 minutes ago. My brew has been sitting for 48 hrs and I just now noticed that I forgot to fill it up to the 5 gallon mark (it's just a little above the 4 gallon line). My question is: can I simply add the extra water without screwing up the brew? And did this effect my original gravity? Any help would be very much appreciated. Maybe next time I won't have so many beers :drunk:
 
It made your OG higher. It'll be a stronger brew than if you had added water.

I'd just leave it alone. It'll be fine...a little stronger is all.

You could top it off if you really wanted to, but as I said, I'd leave it alone and see how it turns out. Maybe call it an imperial IPA. :)
 
How much would you need to add to get 5 gal?

I wouldn't worry too much about it at this point. You'll just be a little higher in gravity and ABV.
 
Welcome to HBT and homebrewing!

Yes, the short volume affected your original gravity. Less volume = higher concentration of sugars = higher original gravity.

Now, you can do one of two things: 1) relax, and let it be what it is-- a slightly stronger beer than you planned on (IPA's should be strong anyway!), or 2) add some cooled boiled non-aerated water to the fermenter asap, minimizing any splashing (you don't want to introduce any air at this point), and don't forget to sanitize anything the cooled water touches.

Option 2 is probably controversial, depending on who you ask, but it's really the only simple way of fixing the volume at this stage.

Either way, I'm sure the beer will come out fine!

-Steve
 
Presumably your OG will be higher. Do you have a hydrometer? If so take a gravity reading and see where you are at. If you wanted to you could top it off with more water, but it would need to be water you have boiled then allowed to cool to about the current temp of the wort. No need to top it up though, not a big deal.

Either way it is not screwed up, may just be a bit strong.
 
Steve's got it; if you wanted to add the boiled, cooled top-off water quietly, you could even siphon it in, in order to minimize oxidation. If it were me, I'd just leave it be and have fewer, stronger beers.
 
I might be inclined to add water- but not right now. First, wait until it's finished up and you check the gravity (the FG). Taste it. If it's saying to you, "Good beer, but it needs to be watered down a little", then you can simply add more water to your bottling bucket when you bottle. Instead of boiling a cup of water and dissolving the priming sugar, you can boil up the .75 gallon or so that you're missing and add the sugar to it. Put that in your bottling bucket, and then rack the beer into it.

Now, when you take the sample, you may decide that the beer is great as is, and doesn't need to have water added to it. That's fine! It'll just give you a little bit "thicker" and higher alcohol beer. Either way, it'll still be good beer.
 
The OG was 1.061. The instructions in the kit said between 1.050 and 1.055.
I thought this was strange only because I matched the kits FG perfectly at 1.015 (although at the high end). I'll leave it alone because I love higher alcohol beers. Thanks for the quick responses and lowering my blood pressure!
 
The OG was 1.061. The instructions in the kit said between 1.050 and 1.055.
I thought this was strange only because I matched the kits FG perfectly at 1.015 (although at the high end). I'll leave it alone because I love higher alcohol beers. Thanks for the quick responses, great advice and lowering my blood pressure!
 
+1 on Yooper's plan. If it tastes good, let it be. But if you end up wanting to add a little water, just use a little extra when you boil your sugar. I never would've thought of that, but that's why I'm not the Yooper.
 
then you can simply add more water to your bottling bucket when you bottle. Instead of boiling a cup of water and dissolving the priming sugar, you can boil up the .75 gallon or so that you're missing and add the sugar to it. Put that in your bottling bucket, and then rack the beer into it.

This is what I've done in the past, with good results.
 
Just for your info, if you plan to brew it again the same way... If you needed to add .75 gallons to make the 5 gallon total, you would end up with 1.052 OG.
 
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