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Bierman707

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I only have a 5 gallon (and about an extra quart at the top) carboy. Here's my issue before I give my question. When I have only 4 gallons of wort and pitch the yeast, the fermentation get so active that it ALMOST comes out of the carboy.
My question is, can I simply add a gallon of distilled water to the fermented beer in the racking bucket when I'm adding the priming sugar?
Bare in mind that the recipe is 6 lbs of dme and 3 pounds of grain (partial mash) (BIAB). So there shouldn't be an issue with it diluting out.
I just have a feeling that the yeast may not be able to do its thing properly with such concentrated wort.
 
I only have a 5 gallon (and about an extra quart at the top) carboy. Here's my issue before I give my question. When I have only 4 gallons of wort and pitch the yeast, the fermentation get so active that it ALMOST comes out of the carboy.
My question is, can I simply add a gallon of distilled water to the fermented beer in the racking bucket when I'm adding the priming sugar?
Bare in mind that the recipe is 6 lbs of dme and 3 pounds of grain (partial mash) (BIAB). So there shouldn't be an issue with it diluting out.
I just have a feeling that the yeast may not be able to do its thing properly with such concentrated wort.

The yeast are there to do one thing and that's to eat sugar, no matter what the concentration is you just need to make sure that you pitch enough yeast, and make sure you oxygenate the wort so that the yeast can begin working as fast as possible and make sure when fermentation is finished you collect the yeast in a timely fashion because once the fermentation is complete some of the yeast cells break down and begin to die and that can lead to off flavors
 
With that much DME and grain in 4 gallons of wort you are probably looking at an OG of about 1.085? As long as you pitch enough yeast ( use the yeast pitch calculator) you will be fine. When you add the water to the bottling bucket to dilute the beer, make sure you have given it a good boil to drive off as much oxygen as possible and let it cool before using, oxygen added to the beer post fermentation will not be good for the stability of your beer.
 
I am actually in a similar boat and just posted a thread about reducing the batch size to 4.5gallons for a normally 5 gallon batch. I only have one Carboy left and I know I could only get away with 4.5gallons with a blowoff tube for emergencies. I am hoping to brew it at 4.5 without diluting at the end and just going straight to bottle conditioning.
 
You could dilute it after krausen and before the end of fermentation rather than at priming. It's not a bad way to squeeze a little extra beer out of a smaller fermenter but you're better off just using the ingredients that will give you what you want to start with.
 
I routinely add filtered water after fermentation. For instance, I have a grain bill for 15 gallons but want to use two 7 gal fermenters. My OG is 1.08 and the yeast will take it down to 1.01 (9.19 abv) or below. If I end up with say 11 gal of finished beer, I add 4 gallons of water (11/15 * 9.19 = 6.74 abv). One could easily argue oxygenation (is that a word?) or infection but I have yet to have a batch that wasn't excellent. It couldn't hurt to boil and chill the water addition or use bottled water. I do use the blichmann carbonator so maybe that helps with any oxygen. All the science, I don't understand. It's just my passion a few days a month.
 
Nice! Rocket man reference, I like it!
 
Nice! Rocket man reference, I like it!

The guy who taught me how to brew is the Walter White of beer (high school chem teacher). He talks about the absolute science from the boil through the chill and into the ferment. I just make beer that doesn't taste like it has been drank once. And I brew IFR (I follow recipes).

Naming beers is the most fun part of brewing (Lawnmower my favorite, Crazy Orange Hoe, Best Impression of Dick [yuengling], Best Dog Friend, etc). I should probably find a good EJ song lyric and make a beer.
 

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