Bottling day and short of 5 gallons in the pail

[beekeeperman]

Do you bottle what you have or can you add some bottled
water to the bottom of the bottling pail along with the corn sugar
before racking the beer into it ?

 

[evanmars]

Bottle what you have. No need to be greedy and water your beer down trying to get more volume.

 

[surffisher2a]

I would bottle what you have and not add any water.

make sure you adjust your priming sugar to the volume so you get the right carbonation.

 

[LakeErieMonster]

Do not water down your beer. Recalculate priming sugar necessary for your new volume.

 

[beekeeperman]

OK thanks, had to ask being a dumb newb.
Guess i need to add a little more than 5 gals on brew day to make up
for the trub.

 

[evanmars]

Exactly. If it is more than just a little, consider increasing the amount of ingredients to keep your numbers in line.
Starting gravity, IBUs, etc.
There are quite a few online calculators that will help you with this.

 

[RmikeVT]

When I used kits I never ended up with 5gal going into the bottling bucket. I think the kits are generally misleading. Most kits I've seen are calculated to get 5gal going into the fermenter, which means you are probably going to get 4.5gal out do to Trub, etc.

 

[brewprint]

Check the final gravity. If it's on leave it. If it's above add water. Or just leave it alone. Really, do whatever you want. All kit's come with 5oz of priming sugar anyway so it's not that critical.

 

[Malty_Dog]

I generally agree not to water down the beer. Occasionally I will top up a little bit right after the wort goes into the fermenter if I want just a little more volume. Not too much though, maybe 2 pints or less. Any more and I think you begin to change the beer. Purists will likely not approve of this practice