Adding Water = Low OG?

[Wilde]

I just brewed my second 5 gal. batch, the American IPA kit from More Beer.

All the recipes I've ever seen say that if you're volume is low to add water to the primary after transferring the wort.

I did this with my first batch and ended up with OG lower than what the recipe stated.

For my second batch I added more water to the boil but still was 1 gal. shy in the primary. After adding only 1/2 gal I was at the low-end of the OG called for in the recipe.

I took a gravity reading before transferring from the BK and it was within the range.

Is this a problem with my efficiency? Should my OG be high in the BK and dilute down to proper gravity with the water addition?

All help/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

 

[freisste]

All grain or extract? If extract, likely you are not getting a good mix of your top-off water and extract. If it's all grain, the issue is either low efficiency or the same issue as extract. Consider a larger boil if you want it to be more uniform.

 

[Keith_O]

I just brewed my second 5 gal. batch, the American IPA kit from More Beer.



All the recipes I've ever seen say that if you're volume is low to add water to the primary after transferring the wort.



I did this with my first batch and ended up with OG lower than what the recipe stated.



For my second batch I added more water to the boil but still was 1 gal. shy in the primary. After adding only 1/2 gal I was at the low-end of the OG called for in the recipe.



I took a gravity reading before transferring from the BK and it was within the range.



Is this a problem with my efficiency? Should my OG be high in the BK and dilute down to proper gravity with the water addition?



All help/suggestions are appreciated. Thanks

Uf


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[CarbonTom]

As freisste said it depends on which type of method you used. I have encountered times where I had boiled off too much on an IPA and didn't want to add water and dilute the OG. As a result it got way off balance and the hop profile was too aggressive for the beer, and ruined it.

Depending on how hoppy the beer is you might want to dilute it to the proper volume just so the hop profile is in check, and take the grav hit and have a more sessionable beer. You will lose some volume in the fermenter as well, minimal, but it occurs. Just something to keep in mind.

If this beer isnt super high IBU i would just leave it and you'll have a slightly more bitter beer with the target abv and body.

at the end of the day you still made beer! RDWHAHB. Hope that helps!!

 

[Wilde]

Great info. I'll keep this in mind when I'm evaluating it. Just tasting so far doesn't come off as overly hoppy. Thanks