4 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket...

Hey guys, Did my first brew today and it was a blast! Came up with a minor problem towards the end however... As it was time to put the wort in the fermentation bucket, I poured back and fourth between pot and bucket getting some good oxygen going. It created a good amount of foam so I stopped, I added about a gallon and a half of water and it was showing five gallons so I pitched my yeast. What I didn't account for was the head space appearing to be 5 and when it went away I was left with just shy of 4. I did a little research and came up with either add sterile water and stir lightly or let it ride a have a higher abv. The instruction called for a OG of 1.055 and I got 1.060. What's your guys opinions?

 

Once you pitch your yeast you are better off just letting it go. Sure you'll end up with less beer at a higher ABV, but you can fix the issue with the next beer.

 

A 0.005 difference isn't that big of a deal. If you were shooting for 1.050 and got 1.075, that'd be one thing, but if you were shooting for 1.055 and got 1.060, that's nothing. Just leave it. Personally, I overshoot my gravity 90% of the time. I routinely am trying to get 1.055 and get 1.062 or am shooting for 1.048 and get 1.055. I think that amount of a difference is perfectly okay, but I know a lot of people who would vehemently disagree. In my case, I just think I have a much higher efficiency than beer recipe calculators or recipes in general assume, which results in the higher gravities, but it should be okay. The most extreme case I've personally ever had was when I was shooting for a 4% ABV beer and I ended up with a 6.5% ABV beer, but that rarely happens, and the beer was still very good. Just... not what I was shooting for... A five point gravity difference won't result in anything that drastic.

 

Thanks guys, I was really tempted to last night but I ultimately decided not too. I made another bone headed mistake though...I saw the airlock gromount was kinda tucked in when I inserted it so I attempted to adjust it and ended up pushing it in the beer. I quickly got some stainless steel tongs and coated it with sanitizer and then just kinda fished around the top, obviously didn't find it and I resanitized the lid put it back a just placed the airlock back in the hole. Frantically did some research i think I'll be okay but definitely learned lessons yesterday lol.

 

I'd leave as is. But you can add the .4 gallon of water too at like any time to get your OG/volume.

I.e. From my notes of the IPA I was drinking last night, this was like day 2 of fermentation:

7/4 - Worried by the extremely high gravity due to better efficiency and a higher boil off so added about a half gallon of boiled and cooled water to the fermenter. gravity should have dropped about 7 points. Should get the ABV to a more managable 7.1% and help with the large amount of hops and trub in the fermenter.