Too much water

[beergarcia]

When brewing my second batch of beer, (a belgin wit) i added too much water. It called for 5-1/2 gal. finish volume and I finnished with 6 I fermented through the primary stage, (only two days, and I had moved the carboy only slightly disturbing it while still bubbling and bubbling stopped) and my gravity is now 1.018. My og was taken at wrong time so it is a void reading, will I just end up with a watered down beer, and do I still wait for gravity to be 1.012-1.010 to assume fermentation is finnished and going into conditioning.

 

[cmybeer]

Wait, wait and wait. Next time don't rack until fermentation is definitely done if at all. Typically wait three weeks in your primary fermenter and disregard the instructions. Will it be watered down? Not really, it will be a lower ABV than you were shooting for but it will be fine for a wit.

 

[beergarcia]

I have not racked yet. "Primary" was in reference to the stage of fermentation.

 

[cmybeer]

Got ya! I was reading under the influence again....

Anyways, that doesn't change my advice, wait it out at a minimum two weeks, preferably three. Once fermentation is complete it can help the beer by leaving it on the yeast to clean up after themselves. They kind of get rid of some of the unwanted by-products associated with fermentation so removing the beer from them early could slow or eliminate that process of self-cleaning.

 

[beergarcia]

thank you for the advice it started to bubble again and looks good. I did rinse the grains after their steep for 45 min. so this should add some sugars to the wort, and may compensate for the added water.