Adding water to the secondary

Not sure what I did but after filling my primary, I evidently misjudged how much I lost during the boil (started with a 6 gallon boil) and it wasn't until the next day I realized I am well under 5 gallons in the primary.

Has anyone ever added more water when moving to the secondary or should I just leave well enough alone and be content with a smaller batch?

General rule of thumb is to NEVER add anything to the brew once its started fermenting.

This is the reason why many of us top off to 5.25 to 5.5 gals.

I've done it. Usually to try and reduce the headspace in the seconday. I limit it to 1/2 gallon and always plug that extra water into the beersmith recipe to make sure I still like the numbers.

Headspace is not really a problem as long as it's still outgassing...

homebrewer_99 said:

General rule of thumb is to NEVER add anything to the brew once its started fermenting.

Click to expand...

Any particular reason for this?

I wouldn't go as far as say never do it, but it is not really recommended. The issue is that you will have oxygen dissolved in solution in the water and addiding O2 to your beer once fermentation has started to slow is a bad idea. If you really want to go forwards with this, boil it to drive off any O2 in solution, then cover and cool as quickly as possible. Add to secondary as gently as possible.

Oxygenation of the wort. Adding tap water will add oxygen, as well as dilute the beer.

Edit- Bearcat was faster, and better with the explanation, too!

I've never added water to reduce head space in secondary, but I have added [extra] water to the sugar solution at bottling time. I've since got my mash temps much more controlled, but early on, I had a few batches with high FGs. So I added water to the bottling bucket to lower it by a point or two. As long as it's boiled, cooled, and added in a very still way, I don't think there is much problem with infection or oxidation. Keep in mind though that, in addition to diluting gravity, it will dilute IBUs and ABV. The easy calculation for all three of those is C1*V1=C2*V2.

I think I'll just leave well enough alone and prime based upon what I end up with in the bottling bucket which I am guessing is going to be around 4 gallons.

Normally I top off to 5.5 gallons in the primary however, I clearly misjudged this time. It was late and I was tired!