Didn't top off wort w/ enough h20

So I brewed an IPA extract kit with specialty grains. Thought I did everything right, until the next morning when I realized I was missing half a gallon of beer. So my 5-gallon recipe was now a 4.5 gallon beer.
Then of course, when it got transferred to be bottled I only ended up with 3.75 gallons of beer. My final gravity was 1.018 when the recipe called for 1.014.
Any thoughts on what I may anticipate from this beer?

It tastes great so far though. Looking forward to it carbing so I can have a whole glass.

So you started with 4.5 gal and ended up with 3.75 gal? That's weird, what, is there a hole in your bucket. haha. When I make extract beers I normally make my wort 5.5 gallons to make up for the beer lost during the transferring and kegging plus the sediment at the bottom of the bucket.

If that happens again with partial boil extract.. and you are only at the "next morning".. add the sanitized (or commercial distilled or spring) water right then and there. You'd be fine.

I wouldn't do that on day 3 though..

Fred

If it tastes great, then it's fine. Next time, you can certainly top up to 5 gallons in the fermenter if you miss the volume and maybe try to rack a little more closely to not lose another .75 gallon (that's a LOT!) without sucking up too much trub.

Still, if you have 3.75 gallons of great beer, then it still worked out well so don't worry!

The beer might have a bit more body and malt flavor than the original recipe intended, but it may be a good thing depending on what kind of beer it is.

It just sounds like you did a very short primary time and racking to the bottling bucket you kept the siphon above the trub layer. The yeast/trub layer wasn't compacted resulting in the loss of three quarts of good beer.

How far off am I?

flars said:

It just sounds like you did a very short primary time and racking to the bottling bucket you kept the siphon above the trub layer. The yeast/trub layer wasn't compacted resulting in the loss of three quarts of good beer.

How far off am I?

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I was suprised by the amount of trub and yeast at the end. I did use a new brand that I had not used before though so the yeast may have been super active. It could've not compacted enough, I gave it 30 minutes after moving it.

If maltier beer is my biggest problem them I am not too worried. And next time, which there wont be, I'll add sanitized water.