New to brewing, didnt add enough water!

[hgdsraj]

Hi all!
I began brewing my first IPA and Red Ale two weeks ago. I took the OG and the IPA was 1.075 and the Red Ale was 1.060. The beers seem to be within reasonable OG for their styles but i did not add enough water to the wort in primary (currently in secondary) and now have about 3.5 gallons of Red ale and 3 gallons of IPA. Both recipes called for 6 gallons (5 final after primary). I believe my problem was i used an incorrect measuring device and did not know that i was supposed to fill the plastic carboy to the "fill line" (as the fill line was not labeled, just a little lip) and had what i thought was 6 gallons of wort but was instead probably 4. I was wondering if i should add more water or not now that its in secondary. I took a gravity reading when transfering to secondary and found the IPA to be 7.5%abv and the Red Ale to be 6.5abv

 

[Temp81]

I would just leave it alone and drink the beer as is. Other than dry hopping or fruit additions, I would not add anything to a beer that is through it's primary fermentation stage. Just chalk it up to a learning experience, and measure your volumes better next time.

 

[brewprint]

Sounds like good beer to me.

Learning curve

 

[adamdillabo]

If they taste good I would leave it. If they were too bitter I would boil my priming sugar in 1/2-1 gallon of water. Cool it down rack on top and bottle as normal.

 

[hottpeper13]

if they taste good i would leave it. If they were too bitter i would boil my priming sugar in 1/2-1 gallon of water. Cool it down rack on top and bottle as normal.

+1

 

[JohnSand]

I have done this. Now I usually take a gravity while it's cooling, in case I need to adjust water. The first time I did it I split the bottling: half as it was, half with a little water added. Because I bottle prime, it was easy to adjust priming. Either way will work, but your numbers are not so far off.

 

[hgdsraj]

Thanks all! Bottling on saturday, have to guestimate the volume too add dextrose ...anybody have any idea what the lines on a five gallon carboy represent (the little ridges as in this picture http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/...f78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/5/c/5carbd.jpg )