Hitting Target Gravity... Post (or During) Fermentation

[moconno1]

Hi All,

Last night, I made my second attempt at creating a Belgian-esque Whit. Given the color, aroma, and specialty ingrediants (including Coriander, Orange Peels, and lemongrass), I'm anticipating a pretty awesome beer. I did, however, significantly overshoot my target starting gravity of 1.050 (my reading was 1.060), which I antribute to a slightly longer heating/boil time of my wort. Rather than adjusting the gravity by adding water to the Wort (which I'm assuming I should have done?), I ended up just chilling my wort and pitching my Belgian Yeast at 71 degrees.

My question is, is there anything I should/could do now that fermentation has started? I wasn't sure if adding a pre-calculated amount of water would stahl fermentation and/or change the beer's character. Given the fact that the Beer is going to sit in the Fermentor for at least a week longer than usual, I thought another option would be to add water to the mix post fermentation and mix it in, though, again, I wasn't sure if this would have any negative consequences. Given the fact that everything else (hop balance, spices, etc.) seem to have gone perfectly thus far, I'd hate to not make this beer as perfect as possible.

Any insights would be most appreciated.

 

[hudsonj6]

If your og was higher than expected, was your initial volume also lower? If that's the case you could wait until you're ready to bottle and then use the same amount of priming sugar but add a bit more water to reach your volume.

 

[stevedasleeve]

Leave it alone, the more you **** with your fermentation the more likely you will introduce something detrimental. Your final beer will be stronger and perhaps even better than what you imagined. Next time you can, if you want, adjust your gravity pre-pitching by diluting the wort or, better, adjust your process/ingredients to meet your expected gravity.

Just to keep this in perspective: you will brew again, you will eventually adjust and have a more consistent connection you your expectations/needs, and every time you brew you get a 2fer: beer and experience. What's not to like?

 

[moconno1]

Steve and Hudson - great feedback. Hudson - I actually hit my target volume (five gallons). I think my gravity was high because I was heating the fresh wort (covered) as I was sparging. I did this because I'm brewing on an electric stove and look for ways to cut time, as getting a rolling boil takes awhile. Given the fact I'll be bottling the beer, do you think I could just add four cups of water (instead of one) to dilute it a bit?

 

[erikpete18]

Well, if you hit your final volume correctly, then its not a boil-off problem, you've just got more sugars than you planned for. If you're doing all-grain, its likely your efficiency was just a little better than you planned. If you're doing extract, then its pretty hard to get an incorrect gravity reading unless you added more extract, and a lot more likely that the wort didn't get mixed well if you had to top off with water into the fermenter.

Extract or all-grain, I'd still agree with the other two and not worry about it at this point. If you're set on diluting it and figure you have 5 gal. of what was 1.06, then to get to 1.05 you'd have to add a gallon of water. But I wouldn't bother, it sounds like its gonna be great anyways, and for all we know it could turn out even better than planned