Adding Water After Fermentation w/High OG&FG

[GaoDeBrew]

I am debating if I should willingly dilute my coffee milk stout before bottling. 2.5 Gallon Partial Boil extract recipe, which was a 1.5 gallon boil. I topped off to what I thought was 2.5 gallons, but now looking at the volume it is sitting at closer to 2 gallons. Are there negative effects to boiling a half gallon of water, cooling it, and adding it at bottling? I understand it will dilute the beer, but it looks the end result is already too concentrated and diluting would bring it back to the expected result.

OG of 1.056 (was expecting 1.050 and Beersmith says 1.045), fermented with US-04 for a month, and finished at 1.026 (was expecting 1.020 and BeerSmith says 1.016). The FG sample is clearly stronger and sweeter than anticipated.

My thoughts are the entire batch has been more concentrated as a 2 gallon extract when it shouldve been 2.5 gallons. What actually happens if I fix this so late in the process? Will diluting the beer water it down too much since it has already finished fermentation? Or will it act similar to topping off prior to fermentation and bring the recipe where it was intended to be? I haven't been able to find any info on the result of doing this, and know nothing will be wrong if I just bottle as-is. I'd prefer to stick closer to the initial recipe if possible.


Fermentables:
.5lb Chocolate Malt
.25 English Dark Malt
3.15lb Dark LME
0.5lb Lactose

US-04 yeast for 2.5 gallons batch (sits at 2.1 gallons now)

 

[ncbrewer]

This article talks about diluting after fermentation:
http://www.eckraus.com/blog/high-gr...n=?+Trick+For+Brewing+More+Beer+In+Less+Space

 

[GaoDeBrew]

According to that article it sounds like there is no problem diluting post fermentation. Interesting that a lot of what I've seen on diluting regards high gravity brews, whereas mine is fairly low on ABV given the lactose. All seems to be similar logic with no negative repercussions, especially with extract brews.

I'll be boiling a half gallon with my priming sugar and chill it to room temp before adding and bottling. Thanks