Blew off a lot of water

[Speakers]

I'm brewing a clone of a dogfish head IPA. I did add a yeast boost to it for the first time, and it did take off like I've never seen before. I filled up my glass carboy to the bottom of the neck like I normally do and installed my blow off hose. When the significant action had died down, I realized that a lot of the wort had been blown off. Meaning that the beer level was down to the first indentation on my carboy below the shoulder. Usually it is much above that. I've been brewing monthly for a few years now, and I have never seen this much disappear.

My question is, do any of you ever add water to it to get the content back up at this point or is it better just keep it how it is? Have any of you ever had this happen before?

 

[brettg20]

I have had this happen before, and I would suggest to just leave it as is. If you add more water you will be diluting the alcohol, flavor, and color. I always brew 5.5 - 6 gallon batches in order to achieve a full 5 gal in the end.

 

[shuf]

I wouldn't add water, you risk adding oxygen unless you boil the water, a contamination, and more importantly it waters down your beer .
What was your batch size and the size of your carboy? I've had a few really vigorous fermentations where I lost 0.25-0.5 gallon of wort\trub\yeast mixture when I was fermenting 5.25 gallons of wort in a 6 gallon carboy. I upgraded to an 8 gallon brewcraft bucket, and there’s tons of head space. A 6.5+ gallon carboy should be perfect, but they're pretty pricey.

 

[maida7]

I use better bottles and I have blow off on every batch. I would not add water.

 

[Speakers]

Thanks for the advice. I'll leave it as is.

 

[NiteOwlBrewing]

Resurrection...

I brewed a beer Sunday, got distracted with some neighbors and didn't add my 90min addition until quite late. I added some water during the boil, but apparently not enough. I ended up with 3 gallons of (probably) very concentrated wort. I didn't even bother with an OG as I knew it wouldn't be repeatable. I used S-04 and its already done at 19.5C or upper mid 60sF. I'm now considering boiling a gallon, chilling and tossing it in since fermentation has ceased. I know the yeast still have some cleaning up to do.

Thoughts? It is a pumpkin that I've got 2 other batches of (and 4 more waiting to brew), so maybe this is my "imperial" pumpkin that I up the spice on? I've skipped spicing so far to see what it turns out like.