Does anyone dilute just to lower too high OG?

[clickondan]

Just brewed a 5 gal AG Oktoberfest, was shooting for 1.056 for 5.5% ABV. Ended up with 1.063 for a now expected 6.5%.

That's out of balance for this recipe. Looks like if I wanted to do this, I'd have to add about 0.6 gallons of water to get down to my target OG.

Does anyone actually do that, just to fix their OG? I'm on the fence.

I already pitched yeast last night.

 

[doug293cz]

Sure, partial boil brewers add top up water all the time. Just make sure it's sterile.

But me, I just let it ride if my OG overachieves.

Brew on

 

[teach]

I do it all the time. Good call on making sure the water is sterile; I hadn't thought of that. I just add tap water. Figure the yeast is about to outcompete anything that could possibly be in the municipal water supply...

 

[Spyk'd]

I do it all the time. Good call on making sure the water is sterile; I hadn't thought of that. I just add tap water. Figure the yeast is about to outcompete anything that could possibly be in the municipal water supply...

They can't outcompete the chloramines.

 

[ACSlater]

Bear in mind that this will also strongly affect the malt/hop balance, as the IBUs for the recipe are calculated for a specific hop utilization. Since the water being added was not part of the boil, you may experience a sharp drop in IBUs, which could lead to a strange flavor profile. I speak from experience, as I added water to a couple of SMaSH pale ales because of overshooting my OG, and they tasted...odd. Not undrinkable, but definitely not something I'd serve to anyone.

 

[Hammy71]

I do it on occasion. Sometimes, for unknown reasons my efficiency is way off and I end up with a very high SG. I use bottled water to bring down to where I want it. 9 times out of 10 my efficiency wasn't really off, its because my boil off was more than expected due to the ambient temperature or humidity or whatever. So adding water does nothing to the balance of my brew, in fact....I see it as actually balancing.