ohh no! lol

[showtime24]

ok i started my second batch yesterday which is BB's kolsch, but when i was moving my first batch( a belgian tripel ) i noticed that it was not a full five gallons. i guess when i was brewing it some of the water evaporated and i didnt notice it. i had the 5 gallons of water already pre measured out and didnt pay attention.

my question is what will this do to my belgian tripel?

 

[TipsyDragon]

that all depends on your OG. did you measure it? without that we can only guess at what the lower volume of water has done. which probably made your triple stronger.

 

[showtime24]

well i didnt take an OG but i did take the gravity after about two days and it was 1.08. when i last took it it was like 1.015

 

[TipsyDragon]

well that doesn't really help. the 1.080 was after the yeast had eaten some of the sugar lowered the SG. without an OG reading there is no real way to measure the amount of alcohol thats in your brew. best we can do is take your recipe, correct it for the actual amount of water that you used, and hope your measurements are accurate. did you remember to temperature correct your hydrometer readings?

on the bright side you most definitely have an active fermentation going on. next time get a dowl from your local Home Depot and a gallon of water from the grocery store. pour the water into your brew pot. stick the dowl in along the very side of the pot and mark where the water line is. refill the gallon jug and pour it into your pot. reinsert the dowl and mark the water line. keep this up until your pot can't hold anymore. now you have an accurate volume measuring device calibrated to your pot. makes getting the proper volumes of water ALOT easier. i recommend cutting or burning the marks into the stick. just be sure you don't set the world on fire.

so whats your recipe?

 

[showtime24]

FERMENTABLES
3.3 lb. Light LME
3.3 lb. Amber LME
3 lb. Pilsen DME
1 lb. Light Candi Sugar
8 oz. Maltodextrin
SPECIALTY GRAINS
4 oz. Aromatic
HOPS
2 oz. Bittering
.5 oz. Aroma


my fermenter is marked to let me know how many gallons it has in it but i didnt pay attention to it like a DA
instead of five gallons it is right at the 4 gal mark

 

[Mista_Sparkle]

You could plug it into something like http://beercalculus.hopville.com/recipe and calculate for your 4 gallon batch. It should give you a rough estimate of your OG, and FG and other details etc

 

[TipsyDragon]

cool good deal on the brew pot. your OG is calculated at 1.106. keep that in mind when you take your FG reading and calculate your ABV.

so to answer your OP your beer will most likely be stronger than intended. quite a bit stronger as a matter of fact.

 

[showtime24]

i started with 2.5 gallons of water when brewing but i dont know what it ended up with. i just added another 2.5 gallons at the end. well doing a little math since i have four gallons in the fermenter now i guess it ended up as 1.5 gallons lol

 

[TipsyDragon]

its your current volume thats important. as long as your sure about that my above post is correct.

 

[PinkyOFloyd]

Don't have a lot of experience with things like this but can you dilute it somehow?

 

[TipsyDragon]

yea add the extra gallon of water. siphon it in do not pour it.

 

[showtime24]

yea add the extra gallon of water. siphon it in do not pour it.

should i add the extra gallon of water now or wait until i go to bottle it?

 

[TipsyDragon]

i dont think it matters one way or the other. but i would do it now. boil and cool the water before adding it and sanitize everything before using it.

 

[bknifefight]

Don't have a lot of experience with things like this but can you dilute it somehow?

Would you really want to dilute it? It's a tripel, the extra alcohol will be just fine.

 

[PinkyOFloyd]

Would you really want to dilute it? It's a tripel, the extra alcohol will be just fine.

GEEEZ, don't ask me. It's an option. I think that's what the OP was looking for... Options...

 

[bknifefight]

GEEEZ, don't ask me. It's an option. I think that's what the OP was looking for... Options...

Well I didnt mean to upset you about it. I'm just providing another option.

 

[HomelessWook]

my first brew i topped off to 5 gallons after adding it to the primary. somehow when i siphoned it out into the bottling bucket i ended up with 4 gallons even in the bottling bucket.

instead of 48+ beers i got 41

figured the only thing it would effect would be the ABV% - i tasted it and it tasted great.

 

[DavidSteel]

Make it taste better

RDWHAHB

 

[TechyDork]

I would say just go with it the way it is, and next time remember to check your top off water amount to ensure you get to your 5 gal mark. Live and learn that it what it is all about.

Just put a warning on each bottle,

"Consumption may lead to blackouts and ________________" you fill in the blank

 

[PinkyOFloyd]

Well I didnt mean to upset you about it. I'm just providing another option.

Na, Not upset. If I was upset it would have been all CAPS...