Diluting during primary fermentation

[SkunkyBrewster]

I cooked last night and caught my 5 gal scottish ale bubbling up a storm this morning. But it's a little hot, and I want to cool it down and bring up the volume. I don't think diluting with about 0.5 boiled/cooled water would be a bad thing, but I just wanted to check to see if anyone had any important input before I do.

 

[Reno_eNVy]

Not it wouldn't be a bad thing but it would change the bitterness:maltiness ratio of your beer. Why not put it in a cold part of your house for a while? Or, you can do the swamp cool technique by putting your fermenter in a bucket, filling the bucket with water, covering your fermenter with a shirt to act as a wick, and hitting the thing with a fan.

You might also want to start investing in parts to make a fermentation chamber out of a fridge or freezer. Here's mine. I did it on a college budget for about $50

 

[SkunkyBrewster]

Not it wouldn't be a bad thing but it would change the bitterness:maltiness ratio of your beer. Why not put it in a cold part of your house for a while? Or, you can do the swamp cool technique by putting your fermenter in a bucket, filling the bucket with water, covering your fermenter with a shirt to act as a wick, and hitting the thing with a fan.

You might also want to start investing in parts to make a fermentation chamber out of a fridge or freezer. Here's mine. I did it on a college budget for about $50

Well I'm also worried I may be a little less than 5 gals considering how full my 5 gal fermenter is (i need to mark it at a precisely 5 gls...). I got a really low yield last batch, so I want to make sure I get near 48 this time. I figure I can kill two birds with one stone. That's good advice though, I do tend to have problems/anxiety attacks about the temperature of my batches lol. And a fermentation chamber like you have there is definitely on my homebrewing wishlist. That looks awesome.

 

[BierMuncher]

The cooling effect of adding half gallon of water will be short lived. What's the temperature?

 

[SkunkyBrewster]

I did the math out: with 0.5 gals water added to a 5 gal batch, the 0.5 gals would have to be -10dF haha