Soaking in 2nd Ferm

[landonrone]

I have a robust porter on its fifth day of second ferment right now, using a 5 gallon carboy.
I grated down a whole small coconut, roasted golden brown, stuffed in a muslin sack, and threw it in the secondary alongside an ounce of cascade hops.
The hops and coconut have soaked up probably over half a gallon at this point and created a lot more headspace than I'd like.
Can I add water to reclaim the volume? I feel like that is a bad idea.
Would straining the soaked up beer from the coconut and hops create too much of a problem?

 

[landonrone]

I feel like I could be in the wrong forum for this question.

 

[whiskeyjack]

Don't add water, rack to bottling bucket/keg when you feel its ready.

 

[landonrone]

I figured that was a bad idea- it's just lost a LOT of volume and I'm worried with the headspace. Also worried if I strain it back in when I remove the coconut it might taste funky as hell

 

[whiskeyjack]

If you have a kegging system you could blast the headspace with co2

 

[grainbill]

I'm thinking that as you rack off, you would regain some of the volume. Seems odd that you would lose head space since the liquid is still basically in the carboy. Did you have excessive blow off? I would not dilute the finish brew...

 

[landonrone]

That's what I was thinking as well- the liquid is still in there- but the level seems to have dropped about an inch.
On top of that, I know when I get rid of the hops and coconut, they'll have soaked in significant amounts of liquid.
I won't dilute- But does anyone have experience with draining the liquid off from something like that? Would that liquid have overwhelming flavors? That's my worry with that.