Adding water after fermentation to lower gravity?

[ratinator]

I brewed the Punkin ale clone in the recipe database and I ended up with a smaller batch than intended. Now I'm still trying to dial in my efficiency, but I ended up with about 1.061 OG, which was fine, but still on the higher side. But my S-05 took the FG was like 1.002 (beersmith said 1.010), which leaves me with like a 7.75ish% beer. This is a bit too high for me and when I tasted a the sample it would quite strong to taste. Now I'm thinking of adding water to lower the %, but also regain my volume back to I can get the whole 5gallons in my corny. Whats your opinions on this?

 

[myndflyte]

How much water would you be adding to get back to 5 gal? A taste just after fermentation is going to be strong. Personally, I wouldn't add water back and let it condition a bit so the booze flavor can mellow out.

 

[thefost]

I think this would oxidize your beer. You would have to remove the oxygen from the water first, so that could be a big problem. Adding sparkling water might be the easiest solution. Probably not worth the effort, I would try aging it and see what you get.

 

[slarkin712]

If you're set on diluting this beer with water you should do a blending test. Get a sample of the beer in a container. Then get a glass of water. Combine measured amounts into another glass until you get the flavor that you prefer. Now, this will not give you the flavor that a cold carbonated beer would have, so you're kind of flying blind and will have to use your imagination. I probably wouldn't do this, but it will still be beer. Before you add the water addition at kegging you'll have to sanitize and remove the oxygen from the water. Boil the scaled up water amount for at least 15 minutes and then cool to near room temp. Carefully(without splashing) add this water to the keg and rack your beer on top. Good luck.

 

[ratinator]

Ya I read into blending from BYO but i wanted to know what you guys thought. I was planning on adding a .5-1 gallon, hopefully dropping it to about 6%. I was just gonna add water till I fill my corny which should leave me in the 5.5-6.5% range which is where I wanna be. I would boil the water and rack it to the bottom of the keg and then rack the beer on top as read.

Thanks for the responses.

 

[tooldudetool]

Hmmm, I have a hard time believing S-05 took a 1.061 wort down to 1.002, that is 97% apparent attenuation! Did this beer have a massive amount of simple sugar in it? Something is wrong with this picture... did you compensate for temperature when you took your final gravity reading? Did you use a refractometer to measure gravity after fermentation? Keep in mind that adding water may lower the ABV, but it won't increase the sweetness at all. A higher finishing gravity not only means less alcohol, but also more residual sweetness needed to balance the beer...

 

[ratinator]

Hmmm, I have a hard time believing S-05 took a 1.061 wort down to 1.002, that is 97% apparent attenuation! Did this beer have a massive amount of simple sugar in it? Something is wrong with this picture... did you compensate for temperature when you took your final gravity reading? Did you use a refractometer to measure gravity after fermentation? Keep in mind that adding water may lower the ABV, but it won't increase the sweetness at all. A higher finishing gravity not only means less alcohol, but also more residual sweetness needed to balance the beer...

I added two packs of S-05 (realistically I harvested the yeast from an old batch and made a starter for approx. 2 packs), I added brown sugar to the boil as well as some real canned pumpkin. spices were added as well and I use a hydrometer.

 

[tooldudetool]

Even a high pitching rate shouldn't be able to get S-05 to 97% attenuation.. on the Fermentis spec sheet for that yeast they put it at 81%, and I know some people get a bit higher than that, but not 97%. Was your mash temperature super low, like in the 140's maybe? My guess is maybe your mash temp thermometer is off and you were mashing much lower than you planned... that's the only way I could see getting that level of attenuation. You could always use a bottle of carbonated water and add it to the pint you are drinking to test and see if it helps much at different levels of dilution...

 

[ratinator]

Thanks for the info, I'm gonna make the decision at keg time after another tasting sample