New brewer... how much water to add to wort?

[buzzard86]

Hey gang -

New brewer here. Just sampled my second batch and have a technique question.

Specifically, when making a basic 5 gallon recipe, do you use 5 gallons of water total (ie boil 2.5 and then add 2.5) or do you cook 2.5 gallons and then add enough water to the finished wort to bring to finished back up to 5 gallons (to compensate for water lost during boiling)?

My first batch I used 5 gallons total. Wasn't bad, a bit strong but I also used a dark malt extract so this wasn't totally surprising (also perfectly carbonated). I cooked my second batch alongside of several more experienced brewers and they told me that I had to add enough water to the finished wort to bring it to 5 gallons. I just sampled this batch 2 weeks after bottling and it's undercarbonted and tastes watered down.

Thoughts?

Jim

 

[hoppymonkey]

Yeah for extract recipes you add water at the end to bring it up to 5 gallons.

Are you testing gravity of these? It is possible( unlikely) that you are losing some of the wort to hop sludge,etc and watering the down the beer. I wouldn't worry about the ones in the bottle. Carbonation adds a lot of the mouthfeel.

 

[KCBrewer]

Top it off to 5G once the wort is in the fermenter. I actually go about 1/2G over to make up for the trub that settles to the bottom.

 

[wildwest450]

Top it off to 5G once the wort is in the fermenter. I actually go about 1/2G over to make up for the trub that settles to the bottom.

Be sure to check your OG before doing that, a half a gallon can dilute a beer quite a bit.

 

[buzzard86]

Wow, that was fast! Thanks for the replies. Sounds like I did it correctly. Not sure why it's undercarbonated and dilute then. Might it just not be ready?

Recipe was a Kabayashi Wheat with Sorachi Ace hops. I followed the recipe exactly with the experienced guys watching and helping. 13 days of primary fermentation followed by 14 days of bottle conditioning. Sampled yesterday.

Jim

 

[azscoob]

I would guess it just needs more time to carb properly, my buddy bottled an orange wheat and it took 2 months to carb up properly. Some beers carb fast and some take a while, for him the temps were a tad low so it took longer than he expected.

 

[jigidyjim]

The temp that you store the bottles at makes a huge difference in carbonating. For awhile i was storing bottles in a closet that was < 60 degrees. Bottles took forever to carbonate. Now I store the bottles in the main part of the house which is more temperature controlled to 65-68 degrees, and they carbonate wonderfully.

 

[bullinachinashop]

Move them to 70 degrees and give them a shake. wait a week and they should be fine.

Bull

 

[buzzard86]

I've been storing them in a dark corner of the basement. I'll bring a six pack up and let it condition in warmer environs for a week and then test.

Thanks again, everyone.

Jim

 

[bootney]

I've done two batches and the one thing I need to do is increase the volume of my boil because I've had some issues with mixing the wort with post boil water addition. This has lead to inaccurate hydrometer readings and possibly some of that watered down flavor the op mentioned. I have read increasing your boil size to as close to the finished batch size increases utilization of hops as well as steeping grains.