2nd carboy short on water??

[badbeer]

Hello every one! Just moved my first beer attempt into a 2nd carboy to let it finish but I screwed up the siphon a bit and only got about 4.5 gallons in the carboy! Should I add water to take up the head space to prevent oxidation or should it be ok as is??? I made a TrueBrew Oktoberfest beer with White Labs California yeast and it was in the first carboy for 20 days. I would rather have a bit of a watered down beer instead of having it taste bad due to oxidation!!!
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!!:fro:

 

[seckert]

it will be fine. you will just end up with less beer. you will just be diluting your beer if you add water at this point also you will probably add O2 into your beer by pouring the extra water into it causing oxidation. Just leave it be!

 

[flars]

The risk of oxidation from to much headspace is slight. There most likely has been sufficient off-gassing of carbon dioxide by the racking process to protect your beer. The greatest risk of oxidation would be disturbing this carbon dioxide layer by adding water.

 

[cluckk]

Take twelve ounces of really nice craft beer. Pour off an ounce and then top off with water. Taste and you'll have your answer--unless of course you use BMC and then water may actually improve it. The beer while finishing will still put out some CO2 and this will form a bed on top of the wort.

 

[badbeer]

thanks for the quick responce!!!!! I'll let it sit "AS IS"
CHEERS!!!