4 gallons instead of 5

Becasue the directions of the Brewer's Best Imperial Pale Ale said to add water until the OG gets to 1.081, I only ended up with a total of 4 gallons of brew instead of 5. Is this going to cause a problem?

I only did a few extract brews, but I would say as long as you mixed it up really good, and are sure that the OG is what you were shooting for, I would stick with whatever the volume is. The tick markers on those buckets seem to be off quite a bit. The hydrometer doesn't lie(unless you put it in water and it reads anything OTHER then 1.000-then you'll need to compensate). Either way you'll have a good brew, so enjoy!

Thanks! I restled with whether or not to just add the water, but I chose not to.

Jerryskid89 said:

Becasue the directions of the Brewer's Best Imperial Pale Ale said to add water until the OG gets to 1.081, I only ended up with a total of 4 gallons of brew instead of 5. Is this going to cause a problem?

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shouldn't be a problem. it might be a bit stronger than the kit intended though. I've made this kit before, in fact I'm looking at the instructions right now and it saise to add enough water to bring the wort to approximately five gallons, but be carefull not to add too much to cause it to fall outside of the og range - 1.081 - 1.085. how well did you mix the water with the wort?

edit - as chapa mentioned those markers on the buckets are usually off also

Sometimes the hydrometer does lie with an extract kit. It's hard to get the wort and the top off water mixed thoroughly and the hydrometer will read lower than what the true gravity is. There are 2 possible problems with a 4 gallon batch from a 5 gallon kit. Your yeast may not be able to ferment out all the sugars and you end with too high FG or you might attenuate just fine and end up with a really high alcohol brew that will knock you off your feet.

It's hard to miss the OG on an extract kit. I suspect you should have ended up with 5 gallons but your bucket surely could be mis-marked.

Make sure to use less priming sugar when bottling. I used 5oz in 4 gallons and it came out overcarbed. I would use a carb calculator.

Thanks for the responses. I know that the markings on the bucket are correct, or at least close, because I used 5 one gallons jugs of store bought spring water.

These kits have always been spot on for me. My guess it that this has something to do with your hydrometer test. Did you correct for temperature? Did you mix your wort well enough? Did you get all of the air bubbles off of the hydrometer? Using Papazian's charts, which don't go as high as a 1.8 beer, you'd only drop your OG by about 0.015 if you do add another gallon.

If your 4 posts is a reflection of you brewing experience, I would say that your hydrometer reading is not accurate and you should top up to 5 gallons. That is, if you don't want to take another reading.

If you do take a new reading: mix your wort again, make sure you adjust your reading according to the temperature chart that came with your hydrometer, and spin the hydrometer to release any air bubbles attached to it.