Getting a full 5 gallons

[Brewno]

After carefully racking to secondary and then again carefully racking to my bottling bucket I ended up with what seemed like no sediment at all in my bottles.
The only problem, which isn't actually a problem, is that I lost about 1/2 gal of beer ending up with 4.5 gals. Not a big deal and worth the clean brew.

I thought about adding more water to my kettle to bring it to 5 gals in the end next time. Even J. Palmer says to add an extra gallon to make up for lost beer due to evaporation and trub etc.
But I was wondering about that. In any recipe whether it be a cake or mixing chemicals you usually have to adjust across the board.

Can I just up the water in my kettle?

Tommy

 

[kornkob]

Ifyou jsut adjust the water then you get a lower gravity beer. If you're trying to replicate a specific taste then you need to adjust the whole recipie.

That being said addign an extra gallon of water to most beers isn't going to hurt it-- you'll still make good beer.


That being said, I make 5 gallon batches and don't worry about the beer I 'lost'. If you think about it you're still 'losing' it--- you've just made a bigger batch.

 

[Blender]

I figure my brews for 5.5 in the primary fermentor so I easily end with 5 gallons for bottling. You will have to adjust your recipes for the increased amount. If you just add water then you gravity will be lower which may not be a bad thing.

 

[dougjones31]

I figure my brews for 5.5 in the primary fermentor so I easily end with 5 gallons for bottling. You will have to adjust your recipes for the increased amount. If you just add water then you gravity will be lower which may not be a bad thing.

Ditto! 5.5 gallons in the primary.

 

[homebrewer_99]

ditto his ditto...5.25-5.5 in the primary...

 

[Brewsmith]

Triple ditto. Scale that puppy to 5.5 gal.

 

[Brewno]

I figure my brews for 5.5 in the primary fermentor so I easily end with 5 gallons for bottling. You will have to adjust your recipes for the increased amount. If you just add water then you gravity will be lower which may not be a bad thing.

That was my point in my original post. Palmer says to just add extra water to the kettle. I thought, like any other recipe, you would have to adjust across the board and readjust the whole recipe.
It seems that's what you're saying also.
So adding extra water to the fermenter or adding it to the kettle amounts to the same thing. You would have to adjust "up" all your other ingredients.

Tommy

 

[homebrewer_99]

I don't adjust anything except the water...

 

[Brewno]

I don't adjust anything except the water...

you see.....that's the kind of easy stuff I like!!!!!


Tommy

 

[rcd]

That was my point in my original post. Palmer says to just add extra water to the kettle. I thought, like any other recipe, you would have to adjust across the board and readjust the whole recipe.
It seems that's what you're saying also.
So adding extra water to the fermenter or adding it to the kettle amounts to the same thing. You would have to adjust "up" all your other ingredients.

Tommy

yeah but remember (if I understand correctly), if you add more water, relatively, to your kettle, your hop utilization will go up, which will be a relative factor.

 

[dougjones31]

extra .5 gal in 5 gal. is only 10%.

10% will not make a huge difference in taste if you just add water.

Try the recipe with only adding water and see if it tastes watered down. If it does then adjust the recipe.

 

[Mike-H]

Here's what I do and I get exactly 5 gallons..... I add exactly 5 gallongs of water (either a 5 gallon jug or 5-1gallon containers). This way, by the end of evaporation and the addition of all the ingredients, you end up with 5.25 gallons in the primary exactly. Works pretty good.

 

[Carne de Perro]

I tried going 5.5 in my last batch and had such vigorous foam that I was checking the carboy at least three times a day in case drastic action was needed to prevent "Mt. Saint Helens". While I shoud've remembered RDWHAHB, (and of course all turned out well) I'll be checking how 'active' some yeast strains are in their fermentation from now on.

 

[wstein]

I don't think adding a 1/2 gal more of water to the recipe will drop the O.G that much. Or will it?????

 

[Evan!]

I don't think adding a 1/2 gal more of water to the recipe will drop the O.G that much. Or will it?????

Let's see what ProMash says...

Take my Irish Red for example. With a 5-gallon batch, the OG is 1.044. Up that to 5.5 gallons, and it drops the OG down to 1.040.

So, to answer your question, no it won't. A drop of .004 is small, but it may have an effect depending on the overall gravity.