Adding water in secondary

[yonkerj3]

Hey so this may be a very stupid question but I am one of the new kids on the block. Here we go:

Is it possible to add water to my secondary to bring the amount of final product yield up, or will that dilute/ screw with the mixture? I only ask because I ended up losing significant volume in the fermenter; I guess I should have filled it a little more above the 5 gallon line.

Thoughts?

Thanks, J

 

[nealizm]

If you're OG is higher than intended i dont see why not.I don't know what you're bottling day entails,for me i boil the priming sugar and gently stir it in my beer just make sure its well mixed at bottling but not to oxegenate.You could always let it ride.Mistakes are knowledge.

 

[yonkerj3]

That makes sense, I guess what I was trying to get at was that I want to keep my overall quantity up at 5 gallons without loosing flavor. If nothing else would addition of water coupled with extra fermenting time be better?

 

[cluckk]

Let's ask this a different way, "Will having watered down beer be better than having a bit less good beer?" Simple answer: "Put down the water bottle, back away from the beer slowly and no one will get hurt!"

 

[cluckk]

That makes sense, I guess what I was trying to get at was that I want to keep my overall quantity up at 5 gallons without loosing flavor. If nothing else would addition of water coupled with extra fermenting time be better?

Adding water will change the flavor--greatly--but additional fermenting time won't fix it since you are putting in nothing extra for the yeast to ferment.

 

[yonkerj3]

I think that you are more than right cluckk, this is a quantity over quality question. I would rather have less good beer than more watered beer. Great advice for a novice brewer to hear. Thanks!

J