Not enough water when fermenting.

[Mrclasen]

Hey,

This was my first homebrew and I when I was transferring my beer from the primary fermentor to the secondary fermentor, I noticed that it didn’t even come close to filling the 5 gallon glass carboy (looks like only 4 gallons of beer). I was using a 5 gallon recipe kit from my local home brew store. My guess is that I didn’t add enough water to the wort once it was moved into the primary. My questions for everyone include what impact does this have on my beer and is there anyway that I can fix it even though I am already in the secondary fermentor?

Thanks,
mrclasen

 

[Coldies]

You could add more water but this will throw off your flavor and I do not recomend it at all. You have to take into consideration when moving into the secondary your leaving behind the trub so of course your going to have a lower volume of beer in your secondary. No biggie. I add just a tad over 5 gallons when I mix my water with the wort to make up for this.

RDWHAHB 4 gallons of beer is still 4 gallons of beer and will be plenty. just hurry up and brew another batch.

 

[Yooper]

It'll be fine.

I assume you "topped off" to 5 gallons in the primary? What happens is that with the trub losses and other "stuff", you often lose beer when you transfer.

Also, keep in mind that a 5 gallon carboy holds quite a bit more than 5 gallons to the top- mine is about 5.5 gallons to the top. So, if you have 4.5 gallons in there (which is likely), it looks like a lot less!

Did you take a hydrometer reading when you finished brewing? If your gravity reading was correct, the amount of beer is correct. You don't want to add water down your beer now- I'd rather have 45 bottles of great beer than 53 bottles of watered down beer!

Many of us no longer transfer to a carboy for clearing, and just leave it in the fermenter for a couple of weeks. One thing I noticed is I seem to get more beer. I think what happens is that the yeast cake and other trub items "compact" quite a bit more and I can siphon off more clear beer.

 

[Mrclasen]

Thanks for all of the quick responses! Unfortunately, I did not take a hydrometer reading after the primary. I figured that beer was done ferementing because I left it in there for 8 days and on day 5 in the fermenter it was already down to 1-2 "bubbles" in the airlock every minute.

I am also starting my next beer tonight! And I will be sure to remember to use all of the great advice everyone has provided in this thread. This website is a life saver.

Thanks,
mrclasen