Whoops added too much water into carbouy.

[kupermanp]

So i'm getting back into homebrewing after a decade or so. I have to say things are much improved. Places like this forum are amazing resources. On to my problem.

Unfortunately my fermentor/carbouy was marked in Imperial gal and not US gallons so when I topped it off my total volume is about 6US gal. I didn't notice this for several days so I suspect most of the fermentation is done.

Is there anything I could or should do or is this just a learning experience :smack:


Thanks
K

 

[thadass]

At this point, probably just a learning experience. Depending on the beer style, you might consider a light dry hopping for some increased flavor.

Alternatively you could make a one or two gallon batch with the appropriate strength to mix with the watered-down batch and bring it to a 7 or 8 gallon total of the right gravity/abv. Maybe bottle one or two gallons of the weak stuff and then top up with fresh strong wort and continue fermenting? I haven't done that or seen it done but it might work

 

[MindenMan]

Not knowing the style of beer you are making, you could try boiling some of it down, and then adding it back to the carboy. I actually did this once, but it was a porter that was "extra" malty.

 

[kupermanp]

Its a belgian farmhouse ale. I pretty much figured it was going to be a learning experience. At this point I'd rather make a second batch from start to finish properly than try and hit the bullseye by hitting my first arrow with a second. I posted on the off chance I could add some extra sugar or something easy like that. Thanks

 

[kupermanp]

Not knowing the style of beer you are making, you could try boiling some of it down, and then adding it back to the carboy. I actually did this once, but it was a porter that was "extra" malty.

I like that idea. I may give that a shot. I am using the midwest lawnmower kit do you think that would be appropriate?

 

[flars]

Its a belgian farmhouse ale. I pretty much figured it was going to be a learning experience. At this point I'd rather make a second batch from start to finish properly than try and hit the bullseye by hitting my first arrow with a second. I posted on the off chance I could add some extra sugar or something easy like that. Thanks

In the first day of active fermentation you could have boiled up a wort with DME and added that. After several days the yeast are going into the finishing mode and won't handle extra fermentables that well. Your beer might end up on the sweet side.

 

[MindenMan]

flars I disagree, he can still add some boiled DME to increase the flavor of this brew, and since we know this isn't a big beer he probably has plenty of yeast left that are still hungry. Just recalculate using any one of the free brewing software packages available. I just did some calculating: if your O.G. was supposed to be say,1.047 @ 5 gallons, and at 6 gallons your new O.G. is 1.039, adding 1 pound of DME will effectively raise your O.G. back to 1.047. Just an idea...

 

[kupermanp]

Thanks. Might give that a try.

 

[LamilColorado]

Did you try adding more DME? I didn't have the boil off I usually have and my English Pale Ale was a little off of OG. I poured off about a half gallon after mixing and added yeast as normal. It's been 3 days so I'm wondering if it would be too late to add more to it or if I should just leave it be and bottle it?