I Ran out of water.

[NewBrewerTFM]

What would happen if a five gallon beer kit is cooked and fermented at a significantly smaller volume, three to four gallons? Does this ever happen intentionally? I assume the O.G. will be higher than anticipated, yes or no? How about the F.G.? Does a higher O.G. = higher potential alcohol? Do I need more or tougher yeast?

 

[norsk]

What would happen if a five gallon beer kit is cooked and fermented at a significantly smaller volume, three to four gallons? Does this ever happen intentionally? I assume the O.G. will be higher than anticipated, yes or no? How about the F.G.? Does a higher O.G. = higher potential alcohol? Do I need more or tougher yeast?

Higher OG.
Yes
Yes
Hopefully goes down low enough.
Yes
No... all things being equal.

Good luck, I'm sure it will be fine.

 

[tenbrew]

I just accidentally did this with a tripel. I didn't have my water measurements right and boiled off a lot more than I calculated. I ended up with 3 gallons instead of 5. Fortunately I had made a huge starter so my FG was only slightly higher than the recipe predicted. The OG was obviously higher as well. ABV was 9.3% in my final product.

After 2 weeks in the bottle I'm actually drinking my first one now. Since I'm still a new brewer, as my beers go its quite good. You can taste the alcohol a bit more than I'd prefer and there is more residual sweetness than I want, but its very drinkable. Not sure I'd purposefully do this, but if I accidentally did it again I would rdwhahb.