Stuck between a rock and a hard place - have only 15 litres of wort

[Extralike]

Hey,
I made a mistike and didn't calculate how much wort do I have (Due to lots of accidents in the process - it wasn't my brew day). I now have 15 litres of cool wort with no way of making more. My question is - What's the best way to go from here? I thought about diluting the wort to 16 - 17 litres but I'm afrain of infection. Likewise i'm not a fan of the idea of fermenting only 15 litres of wort because my tank's built for 20. So, what do people think? How do I cut my losses? ferment 15 litres or dilute to 17 litres?

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Whats the OG and what did you want the OG to be?

 

[Extralike]

Whats the OG and what did you want the OG to be?

just finshed checking. Hydrometer says 1.080. Keep in mindd wort still needs to cool a couple of degrees. It should've been 1.050. The wierd thing is that I did all grain so it's wierd gravity's that high (even assuming the hydrometer's slightly off).

I guess I will dilute it in that case.

That's easily the wierdest brew day I ever had.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Gravity will go up as the temp comes down. http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/hydrometer.html?17356797

Dilute away.

 

[Minky]

If my math is correct, adding 5 more liters would put you down around 1.060. At around 24 liters you should be in your 1.050 range.

 

[Extralike]

As people suggested, I dilluted. Now I will pitch and hope for the best. Its actually a mixed blessing because among my many accidents I also over hopped a little. Hopefully it will help with that. I will let you guys know what happened to this batch.

 

[chickypad]

You'll be totally fine. I do this intentionally when wanting to make a 5 gal batch with my 3 gal all grain equipment - i.e. make an overly concentrated wort then top off in the fermenter. The problem would be if you want a really bitter beer as you will max out on your IBU's in the boil then need to dilute. Sounds like it's not a concern on this batch, so you're good!