Can I add water to my fermenter after the first day?

I did my first AG recipe yesterday and did a 3gal. Sparge with a 3gal. strike. Because of grain absorption and boiling evaporation I ended up with 4gal. wort.
Can I now (one day later) add 1gal. to my wort in the fermenter? Or am I just a brewmaster_n00b and have to settle for the 4gal. batch? thanks.

Did you use a recipe or check your OG? I'm a brewing noob myself. I think its ok to add as soon as you realize your short but not a day later. My first all grain, I followed the directions and apparently boiled off too much wort. My second recipe I compensated for the loss by starting with more water. After the boil I was right where I needed to be.

Yup. That's where I am. Not sure if I should add room temp tap water or boil it first and let it cool to room temp before adding it. Its been 24hrs now.

What was the predicted and actual OG? Add ing a gallon of water will dilute your beer

I don't have a hydrometer yet, I'm brewing by the seam of my pants as it were. I purchased an AG cream ale from NB and it didn't come with a recipe, only times to pitch. so I had to Google, youtube, and HBT everything else. I thought 6 gals would become 5 not 4 so I didn't realize the power of reduction.

I found this but it didn't really answer any questions: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/not-enough-water-my-fermenter-225274/

I would not recommend adding more water to your wort at this point.

If you were to add water before you transferred your wort to your fermenter that would have been fine. However, the period after your wort cools and starts to ferment is very critical. Your goal is to allow your yeast to colonize and dominate the environment inside your fermenter, and adding bacteria filled water at this time is not a good idea.

Brewmaster_n00b said:

I don't have a hydrometer yet, I'm brewing by the seam of my pants as it were. I purchased an AG cream ale from NB and it didn't come with a recipe, only times to pitch. so I had to Google, youtube, and HBT everything else. I thought 6 gals would become 5 not 4 so I didn't realize the power of reduction.

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Note that all kits from NB should have links to the recipes on the site. Go to the page where you purchased the kit. Look at the three tabs underneath the price. You'll see "additional information." Click that and click again on the "recipe and instruction" Click Here!

I'm still pretty new to brewing, just about a year. Maybe my comments will kick up some other more seasoned members.

Going straight to AG is pretty ballsy especially without a hydrometer. Get one soon because you'll want to check our FG to make sure your efficiency and fermentation all worked out before bottling. If something is off on the FG, you'll want to think through your brew process to identify what needs to be improved on. Without the hydrometer, you'll be shooting in the dark for 30-45 days only then to know if it's going to be anywhere close to good. But it's more than that. The attenuation between the OG and FG steers the flavor.

As far as adding water....I've read that some think it's okay but you'd want to boil and cool it to the ferment temp.

BUT for your first batch, I'd leave it alone and learn to leave it alone. It'll just be a bit stronger of a beer...maybe even better than you'd figure.

Well, my first brew was an extract kit and when I ordered the next one I noticed that the AG recipe kit was $10 cheaper but it said "Advanced" so, Ballsy? I guess. I'll take that as a complement, I made my own mash tun and the wort was very sticky from all the sugar that got extracted from the grains so I know I did it right. I calculated that the grains would absorb .5gal. and I would boil off .5gal. so, I miscalculated by .5 on both leaving me with 1gal. short. I'll link here the recipe for the AG cream ale from NB. as you can see, it doesn't give me much info at all. poor on their part if you ask me. I guess I have to order the AG DVD separately. I'm sure I can get along fine without it. I've got you guys and google (which points back to you guys most of the time. lol)

Here's the recipe. Note there's no mention of how many gallons to use. tsk tsk.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/cream-ale-all-grain-kit.html

Best not to add water now since your fermentation has already started. Doing so will likely stop your fermentation.

I would personally drink it as-is. Your will just have a "bigger" beer.

If you are intent on reducing it, you could try adding water at bottling. I would pitch another dry yeast packet just to make sure you get good carbonation.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-CreamAle.pdf

I think this is the page your looking for. It was in additional info tab. Then click the link next to recipe and instructions.

I definitely wouldn't add water until it is done fermenting and you have a chance to taste it...given that you're admittedly flying by the seat of your pants and don't have a hydrometer, there's a decent chance that you undershot your OG so diluting could very well put you (retroactively) below where you'd want to be. By waiting for it to finish and then tasting (maybe even getting a hydrometer and checking the FG - definitely not perfect, but if it is higher than it should be that's a clue that your OG was higher too, or your mash temp was way off) you can dilute to an appropriate level by taste, which may be less than a gallon.

Also remember to adjust your priming sugar at bottling for whatever your final volume is vs. 5 gallons.

I you know you overshot your OG, then it is fine to add water, but I would wait until fermentation slows down a bit. This will help to minimize the risk of blow off (not from adding water, just from having the extra volume). I do this from time to time if I make an error in my boil off rates. I'll just buy distilled water from the store and add that. I've never had a problem. Again though, this is for cases where I know I've overshot my OG

GilSwillBasementBrews said:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/allgrain/AG-CreamAle.pdf

I think this is the page your looking for. It was in additional info tab. Then click the link next to recipe and instructions.

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You must not have seen my previous post where I link this and talk about how NB recipes are pretty minimal and are missing any talk of how many gallons of water to use for each step. Thanks for playing.

Well, Thank you all for your input. After reading all of your replies I have decided NOT to add any water and instead to just learn from this batch. I think 7 gallons would have been perfect. either 3.5/3.5 or 3/4 either way. Thanks I'll get it right next time.:smack:

I would not hesitate to add little more water at the beginning, not sure why people paranoid so much. I just brewed Hefe and overshoot gravity to 1.054 instead of planned 1.050 due to utilizing decoction mash schedule for the first time. I pitched 3068 and started to cool boiled water (0.4 gal) and kind of forgot about it. Added 12 hours later when yeast just started to form krausen. Beer fermented so fast at 63F that at day 4 I bottled this hefe and planning to enter it in few competitions since it is a best Hefe I have ever brewed to date.
I'm so glad that I diluted, otherwise I would get knocked few points for being to boozy and out of style.
I open fermented this one (with bucket lid just sitting on top, not snapped and no airlock) this probably contributed to fast ferment and incredible balance of flavors. But thats another story.

If you don't compete then just leave it as is and enjoy stronger beer.

paraordnance said:

I would not hesitate to add little more water at the beginning, not sure why people paranoid so much. I just brewed Hefe and overshoot gravity to 1.054 instead of planned 1.050 due to utilizing decoction mash schedule for the first time. I pitched 3068 and started to cool boiled water (0.4 gal) and kind of forgot about it. Added 12 hours later when yeast just started to form krausen. Beer fermented so fast at 63F that at day 4 I bottled this hefe and planning to enter it in few competitions since it is a best Hefe I have ever brewed to date.
I'm so glad that I diluted, otherwise I would get knocked few points for being to boozy and out of style.
I open fermented this one (with bucket lid just sitting on top, not snapped and no airlock) this probably contributed to fast ferment and incredible balance of flavors. But thats another story.

If you don't compete then just leave it as is and enjoy stronger beer.

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He doesn't have a hydrometer yet so doesn't know if he is on, over, or under his OG. I believe that's why most are saying not to add water. If he didn't get good mash conversion diluting will make the beer thinner than it could already be. Without knowing where he was starting from makes it hard to know which path to take so I would let it ride and see what I wound up with this time. And get a hydrometer for the next batch.

Brewmaster_n00b said:

You must not have seen my previous post where I link this and talk about how NB recipes are pretty minimal and are missing any talk of how many gallons of water to use for each step. Thanks for playing.

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They don't give this because everyone's system is different - boil off rates are different, dead space is different, some people batch sparge while other's fly sparge, some like to mash with a particular grain/water ratio and some BIAB and do all the water in one step. I actually appreciate that NB posts the entire kit recipe when a lot of places don't. I think they probably expect that if you buy an all grain kit you know the specs of your own system. A source like How to Brew would be a good start, the online version is old but still pretty good for learning the basics.

boil a gal of water and add 1-2lbs of DME

To figure out you water volumes try the water calculator at www.brew365.com

I had the exact problem with the same NB recipe. My buddy who is an experienced AG brewer said to top off with some reverse osmosis water you buy in jugs at the grocery store. Did it an all seems well. Poured in water and stirred with a sanitized spoon (bucket fermenter), did this 1 day after putting in the fermenter.

One note of caution, the yeast really got going after doing this. I did not pay attention and after a couple days the krausen got in the 3 piece airlock and plugged it up. Eventually blew the lid off the bucket.

At any rate, if you don't add water you will end up with a stronger brew is all. If you don't add water, also let it ferment longer.

cbrown9064 said:

At any rate, if you don't add water you will end up with a stronger brew is all. If you don't add water, also let it ferment longer.

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The OP won't have a stronger brew than the recipe intended if he/she undershot the OG, which we have no way to know because there were no measurments. So as Gil and others tried to point out, all these recommendations to add water, add water plus DME, are just shots in the dark.

OP, I think you did the right thing by leaving it alone. You learned about volumes on this batch so that will help, then get a hydrometer before the next batch so you can really see what's going on.

settle with it and learn from mistakes

It's your first attempt at AG, mistakes will be made. Im pretty sure there are plenty of us that made mistakes on our first few batches of AG but, you just take GOOD NOTES on your process and you will dial it in. There are multiple web sites that offer step by step "guide lines" when brewing. I have a print out every time i brew now so I know Im not missing anything. Id leave it, and dial your process in.