Making up for lost volume

[hlmbrwng]

I got some grains from my LHBS and I didn't know that someone (likely a customer since the employees were unaware) changed the gap so that the grain was crushed sooooo fine. I ended up getting a pound of rice hulls to ensure I didn't get a stuck sparge. Turns out a pound of those take up a lot of volume!

Between that and the fact that I accidentally left the flame at high heat during much of the boil, I lost a bit of volume; the rice hulls probably absorbed a lot of the mash water and the extraction was high due to the crush. The OG is also about 0.010 higher than I expected.

If I treat a bit of water, say a gallon, exactly the same way I treated my mash and sparge water, could I boil this addition water, let it cool, and then add some to the carboy? It has been fermenting for about 4 days...not sure if this would shock the yeast in some way.

The one issue I see is this: Say the yeast attenuate the wort to 1.012, regardless of whether the OG was 1.074 or 1.064. If the water is added too, later, the beer could end up well below 1.012. I may have answered my own question, but perhaps there are some other reasons not to do this, this late in the fermentation process.

 

[mredge73]

I would just leave it alone and enjoy it as is.
But it shouldn't hurt anything, if you really want to do this just get a bottle of distilled water and use that to water down your beer. Be sure to name it something catchy, like Bud Light.

FYI
It is recommended that you pre-soak rice hulls in water before adding to the mash. This prevents volume loss that you experienced and allows you to rinse the dust off.

 

[hlmbrwng]

I did not know that about rice hulls. That seems like important information! Thank you.

 

[acidrain]

I would add boiled water to get the SG to what your recipe calls for.
Either that, or your going to have a double, or Imperial, or whatever you want to call it. It won't be true to the style anymore, and probably will not have enough hops to balance.
I've very sensitive to balance.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Topping up after fermentation has started presents the problem of oxidation, as water contains dissolved oxygen. Boiling it will help somewhat but not entirely, and some folks have come up with methods using kegs to essentially drive oxygen out of water with CO2. It's still not as good as a proper deaerator but good enough for homebrew.

Easier, safer, better solution is to rebrew it again to a slightly lower gravity and blend them.

The easiest safest thing is just let it ride.