Adding Water to the Secondary?

After racking to the secondary I see that I have plenty of room in my 5-gallon carboy. What would happen if I were to add 1 or 2 quarts of water?

Am I being too greedy?

It will lower the achohol and make the beer a bit lighter. Though 2qts won't effect it all that much. Probably lower a/v half a percent.

Megiddo said:

After racking to the secondary I see that I have plenty of room in my 5-gallon carboy. What would happen if I were to add 1 or 2 quarts of water?

Am I being too greedy?

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If you add 2 quarts of water, you will dilute the beer's flavor (and alcohol content) by ~10%.

I'm more of a "quality before quantity" guy, so I would personally let it go and not dilute it at all.

-walker

Denny's Brew said:

It will lower the achohol and make the beer a bit lighter. Though 2qts won't effect it all that much. Probably lower a/v half a percent.

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don't forget the flavor aspect! i couldn't care less how much alcohol is in my beer, as long as it tastes good.

-walker

Yeah, probably best to leave it alone.

I'll be marking my 6.5 carboy (BEFORE) I brew. Another lesson learned.

Thanks Guys!

Megiddo said:

Yeah, probably best to leave it alone.

I'll be marking my 6.5 carboy (BEFORE) I brew. Another lesson learned.

Thanks Guys!

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Well, some amount of beer is going to be lost during the process of:

1) siphoning the wort into the primary

2) racking to secondary

3) siphoning to bottling bucket

This is a *good* thing: at each step, you're leaving unwanted trub behind.

So yeah, if getting 5 gallons of finished beer is important (like, if you're kegging in 5 gallon cornelius kegs), then start with larger batches. But otherwise you're just ensuring that you get a few bottles less of better-tasting beer.

FYI....

I start with 6 gallons of water on brewday.
I boil 3.5 gallons of this, and lose about 0.5 gallons in the process.
I add another 2.5 gallons to the primary to end with 5.5 gallons fermenting.
Rack to secondary, and I've got a little over 5 gallons.
Rack to bottling bucket, I've got 5 gallons.

-walker

Walker said:

FYI....
I start with 6 gallons of water on brewday.

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Starting with 5.5 or 6 gallons is what I needed. I believe I did 5 gallons.

It's sad to see all that empty space in my 5 gallon carboy.

whats the hydrometer reading? if its really low, like 1.040- then iwouldnt add anything, or if itd higher than you expect, say 1.070 instead of 1.050 you could add some h20.

The best way to tell is with a hydrometer reading. Most recipe kits are designed to make 5 gallons of beer. So if you only had four gallons of wort in your primary, for an extreme example, and then you added water when you racked to secondary you would be dilluting the beer but not beyond what the final product was intended to be. Know what I mean?

The first batch I made I didn't anticipate the fact that I would end up with ~.5 inch or more of trub at the bottom of my primary. So when I racked to secondary there was a ton of space left in the carboy. I added a half gallon of water and it still wasn't up to the 5 gal mark but I didn't add more because I was worried about dilluting too much. The beer turned out good but I actually should have topped off to 5 gal. because the end result was noticeably thick. Don't get me wrong, the abv kicked my a$$ but I think it's concentration put it outside the normal bounds of the particular style I was shooting for.

AHU

I'm such a weenie, I didn't take an original hydrometer reading. I didn’t have ready turkey baster or testing container (which was my bigger problem).

When I started I thought I could float the hydrometer in my carboy. Nope, no way to get it back out. So I have to go buy one of those skinny testing tubes.

Megiddo said:

I'm such a weenie, I didn't take an original hydrometer reading. I didn’t have ready turkey baster or testing container (which was my bigger problem).

When I started I thought I could float the hydrometer in my carboy. Nope, no way to get it back out. So I have to go buy one of those skinny testing tubes.

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i have seen car mechaniches use a hydrometer that just sits o top of the opening of water theyr checking and it sucks up the liquid...i dont know what the deal with thiose is though...

AllHoppedUp said:

...racked to secondary you would be dilluting the beer but not beyond what the final product was intended to be. Know what I mean?

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This was what I was thinking. If everything I've done was designed for 5 gallons then I wouldn't really be dilluting passed what was intended.

yup. I guess I wasn't clear on your initial post.

I thought you happened to lose a lot when racking it and wanted to get it back to 5 gallons in the secondary. If you actually had less than 5 gallons in the primary, you can add the extra water and bring it back to where it's supposed to be with no problems.

-walker

Megiddo said:

This was what I was thinking. If everything I've done was designed for 5 gallons then I wouldn't really be dilluting passed what was intended.

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unless the recipe alraedy took into account the water/wort/beer you would be losing during the boil, the transfers, and bottling. but prolly not, i'm just being difficult

Boil the water (to rid it of oxygen) and siphon it quietly (keep the end of the hose under the surface of the beer). You want to avoid introducing O2 into the beer after it's fermented. You can get some pretty funky off-flavors from O2.

dave-m said:

Boil the water (to rid it of oxygen) and siphon it quietly (keep the end of the hose under the surface of the beer). You want to avoid introducing O2 into the beer after it's fermented. You can get some pretty funky off-flavors from O2.

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Good thoughts, thanks Dave!