Adding Water for Desired Volume

Hey all,

I brewed my first all grain batch last Sunday, and did something totally stupid that I'm trying to rectify if possible.

Okay, so I brewed an all grain kit from NB, the Big Honkin Stout. Got it mashed and sparged pretty smoothly, with 6.5 gallons going into the brew pot. I then boiled it for 75 minutes (misread the hop sched ), and I lost quite a bit of volume during the boil.

My problem: I forgot to measure how much volume I had before putting it into the primary and pitching. I only remembered a couple days ago, when primary fermentation had pretty much stopped. D'oh!

So, the question is, can I add more water now, when I transfer to the secondary? My gut tells me that it would be totally wrong, but I don't really know.

Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks.

If you sterilize the water (boil it and then cool back down in sanitized container), you could. How far off are you? What was your OG/target OG?

I'd say leave it as is and adjust volumes for the next boil.

pdbreen said:

If you sterilize the water (boil it and then cool back down in sanitized container), you could. How far off are you? What was your OG/target OG?

I'd say leave it as is and adjust volumes for the next boil.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I figured I'd just leave it as it is and have a higher gravity. I love higher grav Stout; I guess this one will just be an accidental version.

As for my OG, another little wrinkle to this story is that I broke my hydrometer while I was sanitizing my gear. So, no measurements at all. This beer will not be one that provides any edification; its just for the drinkin'. That's okay, since it's my first AG, if it's drinkable, I'll call it a victory.

Anyway, thanks for the help.