Not enough water in my fermenter!

[zickefoose]

So this is my third batch and I decided on a belgian Strong Ale. Also my first partial mash. Everything went great except I didn't compensate for an entire gallon to boil off! So when I went to top off to 5 gallons in my carboy I was a gallon short.

Because of a push on time I couldn't boil another gallon to add to it before pitching my yeast.

I was just wondering if there will be any huge affect other than maybe a stronger taste. I was aiming for 1.083 and hit 10.90 with my IBU's being 60 rather than the 42 the recipe said.

Also, would it be safe to add water when I throw it into secondary, I plan on leaving it in there for about a 6-8 weeks before bottling.

Thanks!

 

[mixedbrewer]

You could have just added unboiled water... unless you are getting your water from a sewer. If you add new water it might oxidize...

 

[brewit2it]

So this is my third batch and I decided on a belgian Strong Ale. Also my first partial mash. Everything went great except I didn't compensate for an entire gallon to boil off! So when I went to top off to 5 gallons in my carboy I was a gallon short.

Because of a push on time I couldn't boil another gallon to add to it before pitching my yeast.

I was just wondering if there will be any huge affect other than maybe a stronger taste. I was aiming for 1.083 and hit 10.90 with my IBU's being 60 rather than the 42 the recipe said.

Also, would it be safe to add water when I throw it into secondary, I plan on leaving it in there for about a 6-8 weeks before bottling.

Thanks!

I would have just added a gallon of bottled water or even tap water to the primary before you pitched but it is too late for that. I have never added water after primary fermentation but suppose you could do that but it might make the beer tase a little watered down. Maybe someone else who has done this can comment. Not sure why but my instinct would tell me if you are going to add water to add it while the beer is in the primary, maybe even with a small amount of malt extract, like a 1/4 lb DME per 1 gallon H2O.