accidently added too much water...

[FSUBrewer06]

so, like an idiot...i counted incorrectly the amount of water for a 5 gallon batch into a 6.5 gallon carboy. i may have topped it off anywhere from a half gallon to 1 gallon too much. i already pitched the yeast and air-locked it a few hours ago.

am i totally screwed? is there anything i can do to correct/help this mistake? how will it affect the fermentation? any help would be appreciated.

 

[BigB]

Leave it alone... fermentation will be fine. You will just have a weaker beer, but it will likely still taste very good. EDIT: By the way... some people will purposely add 1/2 to 1 gallon extra water purposely to lighten up/ thin out the beer a little. One thing to watch out for though is that the airlock may get plugged by krausen due to lack of room in the carboy. If that happens you can pull it out, clean it, sanitize it, and reinstall... or consider changing it out now for a blow off tube.

 

[lumpher]

leave it alone. won't get you drunk as fast, but you'll have more to drink as a result

 

[XXguy]

Yup - you will bottle more beer, and you will still have good beer. Relax, don't worry.

 

[Nurmey]

What they said ^^

Welcome to HBT!

 

[jigidyjim]

My last batch I added too much water - ended up with a 3.8% instead of a 5% brew, it was a pretty big mistake. But it still tasted fine, and I'm still drinking it.

 

[Pommy]

If you think about it as has been said all you will end up with is more volume for the same amount of sugars and ultimately alcohol, the taste may be 20% less but its not going to taste watery.

 

[Nikkimaija]

Did that once. Got a 60 shilling instead of an 80 shilling Scottish style ale. That said, if you have some more extract on hand and want to preserve your original recipe/abv, why not just toss it in now? Some recipes actually have you add sugars in installments so you don't freak out the yeasty beasties (more wines than beers, but hey, you can claim it was on purpose this way, right?)

 

[Pommy]

you can always add more fermentables after pitching to build up the alcohol percentage but just bear in mind that this will dilute the effects of any speciality grains and hops, which you have already done by adding too much water. Its a trade off and it could be worth it depending on the style and personal preference but you might like a weaker alcohol version of the beer you went for over a weak flavours full strength brew.

 

[FSUBrewer06]

thanks for the advice/tips everyone...already feeling the love at Homebrew Talk!