Adding water to wort

[Chris-18]

Hey everyone,

So yesterday I did my first hefeweizen, and actually my first beer in almost 10 years. I did one when I was a teenager for my college project, but have obviously forgotten everything since then.

I followed a recipe from the local homebrew store, and I think I did a pretty good job.
It was a small 10 L batch, so I can experiment with some things before making bigger batches.

My question is, that after I came to the end of the boil and filtered out all the grain and hops, I was left with only around 7 liters of wort. The recipe called for 10 liters in total before I added the yeast. It also said I should top up with cold clean water.
How much water is normal to top up with? It seems like a ton to add almost 2-3 liters of water.

Maybe I wasn't 100% accurate with my water measurements, but I wasn't off by 3 liters.

Any idea where I went wrong? Or did I do it right?

 

[jerbrew]

You can really top off with whatever you need. If you measured wrong the only thing that will change is your hop utilization since your pre-boil gravity wasn't what the recipe was calling for. another possibility is that you did have enough water in there and it boiled off a lot faster than you were anticipating (happens a lot if you have a vigorous boil going or its your first brew on a new system). How much water did you start with pre-boil?

 

[Erik_Mog]

Depending on the pot you boiled in, and how long you boiled, it is very possible to only end up with 3l from a 10l pre-boil volume. If you started with 10l and wound up with 3l after boiling for an hour, that would be a boil off rate of 3l/hr or .79gal/hr. My system boils off 1.1gal/hr so yours doesn't seem out of line (assuming it was a 60 min boil). With your kit instructions saying to top off with additional water, it sounds like they accounted for the boil off, so you should be fine.

 

[hezagenius]

Do you have a hydrometer to measure specific gravity? You don't want to add more water than whatever it takes to get to your starting gravity. You don't want to end up with watered down beer!

 

[Aristotelian]

Can you check your gravity? Hopefully the wort you have now is more highly concentrated than your target gravity. You can always add water back but it's more important to hit your target gravity than your target volume. The only way to know if it is too much water is by taking a measurement but it is very much conceivable that you need to at 3L if you boiled off that much.

 

[Chris-18]

You can really top off with whatever you need. If you measured wrong the only thing that will change is your hop utilization since your pre-boil gravity wasn't what the recipe was calling for. another possibility is that you did have enough water in there and it boiled off a lot faster than you were anticipating (happens a lot if you have a vigorous boil going or its your first brew on a new system). How much water did you start with pre-boil?

I started with 6 L for the main boil, then I had to take 1,6 for decoction and then add 2.6 L and then around 3L for sparging I believe.
So pre boil should have been around 10 liters if I remember the recipe correctly.

I would have tested the gravity but the test cylinder was broken, and I didn't notice until after I started.
But I followed the recipe as closely as I could, so hopefully it won't be watered down

 

[jerbrew]

I started with 6 L for the main boil, then I had to take 1,6 for decoction and then add 2.6 L and then around 3L for sparging I believe.
So pre boil should have been around 10 liters if I remember the recipe correctly.

I would have tested the gravity but the test cylinder was broken, and I didn't notice until after I started.
But I followed the recipe as closely as I could, so hopefully it won't be watered down

By the sound of this you got to about (6+2.6+3=11.6 - what was left in the grains) 10L pre-boil? If this is right, then it would make sense that you ended with about 7L. you're are going to lose a considerable amount of water as you're boiling. For example in my brew kettle I start with about 7.8 gallons to end up with 6 gallons post boil on a 60 minute boil that a reduction of about 23% ( I get a little heavy handed on my burner most of the time while i'm dialing it in so the boil is more about 70 minutes to get it where I want). If you're using a wide pot (large surface area) then losing 3 L, 30%, of what you started with is not inconceivable. So, you have to figure out how much you need pre-boil to be left with 10L post-boil. Forgive me if this isn't what happened but you can't start with 10L and end with 10L.