Can I add more water?

[jasonshave]

My wort ended up at about 18L after my boil and I'd like to know if I can add water (sanitized) when I transfer it to the carboy in one week? The last kit I did I tried to short the water to increase final gravity but it just made the batch taste like garbage....which I'd like to avoid again.

It's currently sitting in the primary fermenting away...

 

[aprichman]

Having a higher OG then expected shouldn't result in bad tasting beer. Something else most likely went wrong that attributed to bad tasting flavors being present in the beer.

 

[jasonshave]

Thanks. Still though I'd like to top up my already fermenting batch. If I take measures to sanitize and match temperature will it be okay?

 

[aprichman]

Yeah if the water is sanitized and close to the same temp there shouldn't be any problems

 

[Calder]

Water has a lot of entrained O2. Just adding water will add a lot of O2, which is not desirable at this stage.

If you are going to do it, boil the water for 10 minutes to drive off most of the O2, and then allow to cool overnight with the lid on the pot, then add to fermenter.

 

[JimRausch]

A couple times I've added boiled, then chilled water when racking to a carboy for lagering. Partially to decrease headspace, and partially to compensate for an OG that started out a couple points higher than predicted. No problems.
So it depends on your OG. If you were higher than predicted, you can do the math to figure out how much water to add. In both cases I was 2 points high and added 26oz. in a 5G batch. But if your OG was where it should be and you dilute, you're likely to get a thinner product.

 

[jasonshave]

Yah it's more of an issue with the OG being a tad high. Good to know though.

So this raises another question...when is it too late to add water? If the kegged product is off slightly can you add water and let it sit for a while?

 

[MichaelRyanSD]

mis-post

 

[JimRausch]

Yah it's more of an issue with the OG being a tad high. Good to know though.

So this raises another question...when is it too late to add water? If the kegged product is off slightly can you add water and let it sit for a while?

I don't see why not as long as it's done carefully. I do know the bigboys regularly brew high OG batches and dilute them down to target for packaging.

 

[Pappers_]

I'm interested in what your OG target was and what it ended up being? If you are doing extract, if you used the correct volume of water, your OG should be spot on - extract beers gravity readings are often off because of stratification.

If you are going to add water, the best practice would be after the boil and before fermentation. Adding post fermentation is problemmatic, as mentioned above.

If it were me, I'd let it go and enjoy the beer you brewed!