Considering topping up.....

Has anyone ever topped up their beer with,well... beer? I was thinking about this last night. What if you were about a gallon shy of 5gal. Would you ever top up with a GOOD commercial beer of the same type?

I haven't and I wouldn't. Just go with what you have if your gravities are correct and don't sweat it.
If your OG is high, then you might top up with water. But otherwise, call it good and worry about getting your volume correct on the next batch.

I guess I was thinking about once fermentation is done, say right before bottling.

If you are brewing beer then why muddle it with another beer. Why brew at all?

WBC said:

If you are brewing beer then why muddle it with another beer. Why brew at all?

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You could say the same about making wine. I am simply trying to find out if anyone has any reason not to. Many wine kits advise people to top up with water. Most people who make wine kits do not. (myself included.) we simply top up with a similar wine. to get back to the finished volume of 6gal.

hcarter said:

You could say the same about making wine. I am simply trying to find out if anyone has any reason not to. Many wine kits advise people to top up with water. Most people who make wine kits do not. (myself included.) we simply top up with a similar wine. to get back to the finished volume of 6gal.

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Yes, I also top up wine with wine but remember wine will be in carboy (or barrel) for a long interval and you have to top up to avoid oxidation. One would hope that you are only transfering once and that the beer still has some active yeast that can suck up the free oxygen. Having said that, I see no reason that you could not top up with clean beer (be it commercial or homebrew) as long as its of the same style that you are trying to make. Personally if I find myself in such a situation I like to purge the top of the container with CO2 - but that assumes you have a CO2 setup.

Can't think of a technical reason not to do it.

Wine is in a carboy much longer than beer. This length of exposure to oxygen is why I top up my wine carboys leaving as little surface area as possible.

Beer is still gassing off when it is in the secondary carboy, so there is not a big chance that oxygen will get through the barrier in the relatively short time it is there.

Just noticed giligson and I were typing the same thoughts at the same time.

What's the big deal with only having 4 gallons of good homebrew? I don't get the magic 5 gallon amount. It's just seems odd to me that you are more concerned with having 5 gallons than having a good homebrew.

Make another batch and you'll have another 5 gallons of good homebrew to fill the rest of your bottles.

i too would bottle the 4 gallons. and only use 4/5 of the recommended amount of priming sugar.

Nurmey said:

What's the big deal with only having 4 gallons of good homebrew? I don't get the magic 5 gallon amount. It's just seems odd to me that you are more concerned with having 5 gallons than having a good homebrew.

Make another batch and you'll have another 5 gallons of good homebrew to fill the rest of your bottles.

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Not a big deal, just really trying to learn more. I will be quite happy with what I get, just trying to learn.