Dilute beer at bottling?

I know it is common to top up the wort on brew day. Would it work to top up on bottling day with boiled water? I only ask because i have a 5 gal carboy i would like to ferment it but can probably only put 4 gal of wort in it.

(Sorry meant to place under general techniques).

Never have done it but cannot see why it wouldn't work.

Why do you want to dilute? Reduce FG? Make up volume?

Make up volume.

Quality over quantity: Better to have 4 gallons of good beer than 5 gallons of ok beer if you ask me.

You most certainly can add cooled, de-oxygenated water at bottling time, I have done this several times with great success.

What I do is boil the water for 10 minutes the night before bottling and let it cool overnight. I add this to the bottling bucket, being careful not to splash. Then siphon the beer into the bottling bucket, add your primer, stir, and bottle.

Some breweries with limited space will make concentrated beers and will then dilute the final product.

RainyDay said:

Quality over quantity: Better to have 4 gallons of good beer than 5 gallons of ok beer if you ask me.

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Generally speaking, i agree. It is only to address equipment limitations. I would use enough grains and hops for a 5 gal batch so it should end up ok right?

Boiling drives gas off water, rapid cooling keeps gas from redissolving. You can top up with this without problems. Better yet top up after the peak of ferm activity but before its done, then the beer is still saturated with CO2 and it will drive off any gas in the water.

You'd want to use slightly more hops since utilization goes down a bit with increased sugar content.