What do you do when you discover you've added too much water?

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What do you do when you discover you've added too much water?

  • Boil longer until you've achieved the target volume.

    Votes: 15 93.8%
  • Let it ride with the higher volume/weaker beer.

    Votes: 1 6.3%

  • Total voters
    16
Joined
Sep 16, 2020
Messages
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Let's say you measured wrong, or you entered a much longer than intended boil time on your calculator, or more water than necessary is somehow added to the mash/boil. What do you usually do? Spend extra time boiling off liquid until you reach the targeted final volume going into the fermenter? Or just boil as planned, resulting in a higher than intended volume/weaker beer?

It's only happened to me a few times, but I've always just boiled longer with no ill effects. Recently, though, I'd mistakenly added more water than necessary and had to just stop the boil after 60 minutes due to some time constraints for a cream ale...fortunately I'd built the recipe to be on the higher gravity end for that style, and the increased water still produced a wort with a OG of 1.048. Hoping it turns into one of those happy accidents.
 
well i was boiling 14 gallons down to 10, took over 3 hours. but now that i got a refrac. i found out i was over sparging and get just fine effec with 11.5 gallons, boiled down to 10.

so i voted i'd boil it down, because that's what i'd do....it'd also matter if your fermenter is big enough for the extra.
 
I took on the habit of boiling until I reach estimated gravity per recipe in brew software. I also have to fill my hlt with 5 gallon extra water for the herms coil and walk away often. Sometimes this means I collect extra wort and have to boil longer.
 
The problem with aiming directly at the recipe "OG" is it almost certainly will screw up the hop schedule.
Imo, one should understand the recipe pre-boil gravity/volume is a checkpoint that if hit - even if it means protracted boiling - should assure the recipe OG to the fermentor is achieved. In that regard imo it's pretty much the last chance to set things right - before losing control of the outcome...

Cheers!
 
so i voted i'd boil it down, because that's what i'd do....it'd also matter if your fermenter is big enough for the extra.

I love this view. I was explaining the situation to my wife, and noted that I might have more wort than I can fit in the fermenter. She said "well, you don't have to use all of the wort, do you?"...and she's right, but that just feels like the wrong thing to do, haha.
 
I love this view. I was explaining the situation to my wife, and noted that I might have more wort than I can fit in the fermenter. She said "well, you don't have to use all of the wort, do you?"...and she's right, but that just feels like the wrong thing to do, haha.
I have "overflow fermenters" ranging in size from 1.5 liters to 1.4 gallons to handle the excess wort problem. With the main fermentation happening inside opaque stainless steel, it can be fun to have a baby batch in a glass jar on a shelf to watch as it churns away. I might get as few as 2 bottles out of the small batch, but it's better than throwing it away or getting a blow out because I left too little headspace in the main fermenter.

(I guess I should have mentioned this as option #4.)
 
I love this view. I was explaining the situation to my wife, and noted that I might have more wort than I can fit in the fermenter. She said "well, you don't have to use all of the wort, do you?"...and she's right, but that just feels like the wrong thing to do, haha.
Freeze the extra for your next starters?

+1 :mug:
 
I’ve had that happen a few times myself and depending on time I’ve done a couple of things.

Knowing I have more wort and knowing I have to boil Longer I’ll start my hop additions later so if I have a half gallon I need to boil off I know a half gallon is half an hour so I’ll boil for the first 30 mins and not count that time and then after 30 mins start my 60 and proceed as usual.

I don’t have a single fermenter that holds 11 gallons so I have just let it go and split it into my 2 fermenters and come kegging time keep a sanitized growler handy to catch what doesn’t fit into 2 kegs.

And I have done the same as above and added DME or sugar to bump up the gravity but at this point in my brewing career that I just let whatever happen happen and know I’ll have beer in the end.
 
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