Tap water top off at bottling.. WTF was I thinkin?

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Ridge Runner

Ridge Runner

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Yep!! That's what I did :confused: My first batch only yielded 40 12 oz bottles. This is my second batch and I wanted a higher yield. Added about 48 oz. of tap water to my bottling bucket. Has anyone ever done this & what was the outcome? Thanks RR
 
What you have done is made your beer thinner-- FG is now lower.

There's really no effective way to increase yield on the back end without making the beer thinner, thus losing some flavor.

You'll be happier with your results in the future of you focus on quality product as your primary concern, as opposed to worrying about volume. 48 bottles instead of 52? Ultimately, the extra 4 bottles of beer isn't really worth it if you sacrifice flavor.
 
I think the original poster actually said he only had 40 bottles at bottling time, so I can understand being a little disappointed. However, I agree with everybody else in that you shouldn't have watered down your beer, since all you did was make it thinner (noticeably). Still, it's your beer! Do what you like! :D
 
Ridge Runner said:
Yep!! That's what I did :confused: My first batch only yielded 40 12 oz bottles. This is my second batch and I wanted a higher yield. Added about 48 oz. of tap water to my bottling bucket. Has anyone ever done this & what was the outcome? Thanks RR
Click to expand...

You asked what were you thinking...

Maybe we saw too many BMC commercials and the subliminal messages were telling you to, "Add Water" :D

I made this mistake once and only once. So you made lawnmower-like beer. Not a complete loss, its lower carb beer!

At least you didn't top off with sanitizer!!!! I once heard someone do that with one-step!!!!:cross:

What was it style-wise?
 
Bobby_M said:
This is the same kind of quantity over quality thinking that makes BMC undrinkable.
Click to expand...

BTW - I don't think BMC is bad, just really really plain.

I've gotten a number of bad beers in my day from BMC. Same thing happen to me from Sam Adams. It happens.... when the taste they count on is minimal at best. The SA was a summer pale ale.

:mug:
 
I was struck by this disappointment in yield when I started brewing. So now I start out with 6 gal of liquid for my 5 gal. batches of beers.

After boil off and racking a couple of times I get my desired quantity and the product seems quite fine too :mug:
 
Schlenkerla said:
You asked what were you thinking...

Maybe we saw too many BMC commercials and the subliminal messages were telling you to, "Add Water" :D

I made this mistake once and only once. So you made lawnmower-like beer. Not a complete loss, its lower carb beer!

At least you didn't top off with sanitizer!!!! I once heard someone do that with one-step!!!!:cross:

What was it style-wise?
Click to expand...


Too many whiskeys while bottling may be hazardous to my finished product :drunk: ! The style is an extract APA. I like your idea pirate504, thanks for the tip. I'm thinking of brewing 10 gal. batches a couple of times to get my supply up. My family & co-workers really liked the first batch & are asking when the next will be ready. Sharing, that's one of the things I really look forward to with brewing. Lots to learn & i'm enjoying the ride :D . Thanks all. RR
 
Keep good notes of what you've done. You might find that it wasn't much of a mistake at all. Having notes like this will be good 6 months from now if and when you remake this batch.

My watered down vienna wasn't bad at all. It was my number two and I was still impressed on how good it was at the time.

:mug:
 
40 beers out of a "5 gallon" batch is well below the mark IMHO. I usually got around 50-55 per batch. I'd say as long as you are making a 5 gallon recipe, go ahead and add more water to the boil, or when the wort hits primary. As far as being watered down.... thats up to you if you like the beer or not. I think all of the stuff I've made is much better than commercial beer... will you notice a difference between 45 beers and 50? Probably not and you'll get a few extra pints in there. BMC is like going from 50 beers to 100 out of a 5 gallon recipe :)
 
Beef up the recipe to 5.25-5.50 gallons which will account for the the loss to racking and the leftover in the bottling bucket.
 
I agree with sirsloop. Adding a qt or so isnt going to hurt you that much. Since your original recipe was a 5 gal batch if you hadnt added water you could have skewed your taste to the heavy side just as easily. BMC is not just watered down, its diluted up to 100%. All you did was correct a mistake in boiling losses.
 
BTW the next time it would be better to add water after the boil or during the boil to reduce the chances of contamination and to get rid of residual CL2 in your tap water.
 
Starting with extra water to account for evaporation and losses to trub would be a beter idea. Or adding after the boil if if you don't have room in the kettle.

Unless volume was lost due to adding something later, like dryhopping, adding additional water won't really affect what you were expecting. The original recipe was designes for 5 gallons, so adding water will bring you to where you intended to be in the first place. It will be slightly diffrent from what it would have been if the entire volume was fermented, but you might not notice it.
 
Thanks everybody :rockin: !! I'll let you know in a few weeks how it tastes. Thinking of joining a local Homebrew club and the subject of this months meeting is "Hoppy Ales". Gonna take a sixer to the meeting & see what the other folks think of it. Thanks again for the feedback and future insights on how to improve my brewing. :mug: RR
 
No one is more of a newbie than me, but I would assume that the biggest issue (other than lowering the ABV, and losing some flavor) would be contaminates.

The original post was you added tap water? I would be concerned about either A. Chlorine or B. Bacteria.

Someone help me as I am not experienced, but wouldn't tap water (unboiled) be bad for the whole process?
 
KSMICT said:
No one is more of a newbie than me, but I would assume that the biggest issue (other than lowering the ABV, and losing some flavor) would be contaminates.

The original post was you added tap water? I would be concerned about either A. Chlorine or B. Bacteria.

Someone help me as I am not experienced, but wouldn't tap water (unboiled) be bad for the whole process?
Click to expand...

Nah, tap water is usually fine. If you drink it and it tastes okay, then it's fine to use in your beer. I've never had an infection and I use unboiled tap water every time.
 
Interesting to note, Thank you.

I have horrible water quality issues here, I wouldn't drink my (City supplied) tap water (and that is AFTER the softener and filter) and forget sometimes that most people don't have the same issues.

They say mine is safe to drink, but just tasets and smells.

In my other fermenting project we use natural well water without problems (Much better quality and only 10 miles away :mad: ), but there is boiling inherent in that process.
 
I add water to my primary until I reach my desired OG. Once I'm there, that's it. The volume is less important than your gravity. Granted I prefer lower ABV beers but that's in the recipe, not the water content.
 
pirate504 said:
I was struck by this disappointment in yield when I started brewing. So now I start out with 6 gal of liquid for my 5 gal. batches of beers.

After boil off and racking a couple of times I get my desired quantity and the product seems quite fine too :mug:
Click to expand...

I'd already decided to do this same thing with my next batch. A lot of the recipes are figured for 5 gal, but I just got ProMash which makes it easier to refigure them.
 
Fingers said:
I add water to my primary until I reach my desired OG. Once I'm there, that's it. The volume is less important than your gravity. Granted I prefer lower ABV beers but that's in the recipe, not the water content.
Click to expand...

Now that I have ProMash, I've been thinking about this. If I have X amount of malt extract and specialty grains and Y amount of water, I should be able to predict the specific gravity very accurately, right?

If I set up a recipe for 6 gal and it says my OG should be 1.037, for example. Can I boil a 3.5 gal concentrate add enough water to make it 6 gal (which amount will vary because of evaporation) and be fairly certain that I'm at the intended OG?

I'm thinking I'll do that (maybe in a large bucket with spigot) and THEN strain out the hops so that a 6 gal recipe yields ~5+ gal or so of wort ready to ferment. Does the make sense?
 
Moonpile said:
Now that I have ProMash, I've been thinking about this. If I have X amount of malt extract and specialty grains and Y amount of water, I should be able to predict the specific gravity very accurately, right?

If I set up a recipe for 6 gal and it says my OG should be 1.037, for example. Can I boil a 3.5 gal concentrate add enough water to make it 6 gal (which amount will vary because of evaporation) and be fairly certain that I'm at the intended OG?

I'm thinking I'll do that (maybe in a large bucket with spigot) and THEN strain out the hops so that a 6 gal recipe yields ~5+ gal or so of wort ready to ferment. Does the make sense?
Click to expand...

If you're doing extract brewing, ProMash is pretty damned good at accurately predicting your OG. Once you introduce grain mashing into the equation, you lose alot of that accuracy, because (if you're like me) your mash efficiency varies from batch to batch. But using just extract, I've tested the OG, and ProMash is usually within 5 points of actual. But there's still no substitute for taking real hydro readings.
 
Evan! said:
If you're doing extract brewing, ProMash is pretty damned good at accurately predicting your OG. Once you introduce grain mashing into the equation, you lose alot of that accuracy, because (if you're like me) your mash efficiency varies from batch to batch. But using just extract, I've tested the OG, and ProMash is usually within 5 points of actual. But there's still no substitute for taking real hydro readings.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm doing extract. I do intend to take a hydro reading, but want to get it really close before I bother. Thanks for confirming my train of thought!

Moon
 
Fingers said:
I add water to my primary until I reach my desired OG. Once I'm there, that's it. The volume is less important than your gravity. Granted I prefer lower ABV beers but that's in the recipe, not the water content.
Click to expand...

Ridge Runner,
To me, the real question at hand is what your FG was at bottleing time - before and after adding water. If your beer was a wicked strong Barley Wine that was too thick for your tastes and you wanted more of an average ABV and more of an Amber style, then adding H2O was okay. So, What were your FG readings at botteling time?

Focus
 
FG was 1.009 at bottling time. I didn't take a gravity reading after adding the H2O. Tasted one after 15 days in the bottle and not bad!!:) Maybe a little watery but overall a good flavor. This is just my 2nd batch but I really like the Cascade hops. I know better brews are in the future. Just climbing the learning curve. 3 weeks in the bottle this Saturday, gonna try another. I think everythings gonna be OK. RR
 
Daylight Savings APA; 2 weeks in primary, 3.5 weeks in bottles and variable results. Some are good and some aren't too bad. Variable flavors from bottle to bottle. Some are bitter and some are watery. Low carbonation but I'm good with that. Basically wound up with stratified beer in my bottling bucket. Some are right on with great Cascade flavor and aroma.:D Note: NO TOP OFF WATER AT BOTTLING.....EVER.
 

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