Not sure if I did the right thing?

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cpz28

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So today I transfered my second brew (a pale ale that will teeter on being an IPA) into my secondary. Though I had 5 gallons in my primary, when I transfered into my secondary (5 gallon carboy) I only had like barely 4 or so gallons do to the amount of sludge on the bottom. Rather than put all that cloudy sediment in there I (on the advice of my more brew savy uncle) boiled a gallon of water, cooled it and poured it into my secondary with the beer. I was cautious of sanitation and all but is this ok to do? Maybe I'm just being a ***** but I just want this to be right. Five gallons of beer is better than barley four.
 
I honestly don't know if adding water was the right thing or not as I also am a noobe but I only came up with about 4 gallons on my first batch. I just topped the carboy off with CO2 to reduce the likelyhood of oxidation.
 
Well, the biggest problem is that you will normally end up with 5 gallons of watered down tasting beer as opposed to 4 gallons of great beer. There is a slight chance for infection, but very very minimal. Oxidation is possible, but if you gave it a really good boil, then most of the oxygen will have been driven out. It will still be beer, but it may taste a bit more BMC due to the extra water. Rule of thumb is only top off before fermentation starts, and even then you can stretch your O.G. too far leaving you a watery beer. Good luck and enjoy. I am sure it will still be good.
 
Topping off is not needed for beers, although it is necessary for wine. Since you say it was close to an IPA, this just puts it back into the Pale range. Personally, I prefer smaller beers. You might consider dry hopping.
 
Personally i would take a 4 gallon batch of beer that tasted like what i was aiming for rather than topping off the secondary.

Your uncle is corect that you don't want to rack the trub (sludge) into the secondary. one trick that may help, not sure if you did this, is to take a towel or something and prop up the carboy on an angle, so that you can maximize the amout you can rack out of it.

Cheers
 
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