First AG is brewing, Already bumps in the road. need advice

[Thehopguy]

First ag is 30 minutes into boil. so calculations were way off. i had like 8 gallons of wort in a 9 gallon pot after sparging. I couldnt boil that so i had to dump some anyways. then i think i dumped too much. now im afraid ill have way less than 5 gallons at the end of the boil and cool

can i add water to teh fermenter if im short a gallon or so?

 

[baptistbrewer]

What is your gravity now? Trust me gravity is mote important than volume. What was your Target preboil and post boil gravity?

Also have you added hops?

 

[bullinachinashop]

Well, first of all, I would never dump wort. I would have split the boil into a pot on the stove, but it's too late now.

Just boil what you have and if you a little low on volume, cut your hop schedule down a little.

If you add water to your already diluted wort, you'll end up with something completely different than what you planned for.

If you have some DME you can add that to the boil and the bring your volume up.

I'd most likely just roll with what you have and cut the hop schedule by about 25%

Kind of a crap shoot!

Bull

 

[Thehopguy]

well i did take a reading pre boil. it said 1.040. sample was 105 degrees so instructions said add 7. so 1.047. is this ok??? recipe called for late addition of corn sugar as well to boost abv

 

[gr8shandini]

if you top off with water, it's going to significantly reduce your OG. I'd just continue as planned and accept the fact that you're going to have a smaller batch. Better to have 3 gals of good beer than 5 gals of watered down brew.

Edit: After reading the other posts, I agree; try to hit an OG rather than a volume. Assuming your hydrometer correction is accurate, 1.047 is a respectable pre-boil gravity that should get you an OG well north of 1.050. However, keep in mind that you don't need to have the boil rolling like pasta water. If your target OG was in the 1.050 range, keeping a nice low boil going will get you close and minimize volume loss.

Also, get yourself a refractometer before your next batch. Much better than a hydrometer for this phase of the brewing process.

 

[bullinachinashop]

well i did take a reading pre boil. it said 1.040. sample was 105 degrees so instructions said add 7. so 1.047. is this ok??? recipe called for late addition of corn sugar as well to boost abv

What are you making?

 

[baptistbrewer]

Well, it depends how much and how hard you boil. If you havent added hops you can still boil it off. But with a pre boil 1.047 you might not have a strong beer but should be drinkable. How big is your fermenter? Just ride it out. Should be ok.

 

[Thehopguy]

beer is supposed to be big. supposed to be 1.067. shooting for high 7 or 8% abv