Help with volume/gravity problem

[Beavdowg]

Here's what happened:

I brewed yesterday a batch I was supposed to end up with 5.25 gals of 1.067 beer. When I was done filling my fermentor I only ended up with somewhere between 3.5 to 4 gals ( I don't know exactly as I haven't marked my fermentor for volumes) of 1.074 wort. I'm stumped as to how this happened as I know for sure that I started w/ 7 gals pre-boil. My Beersmith tells me I should of ended up with my 5.5 gals into my fermentor but a couple friends were over and my brewing always gets discombobulated when I get distracted. I know I boiled for longer than my 60 minutes but I don't see how it could be been for longer than an extra 10-15 minutes. Anyway, I pitched my yeast but it didn't dawn on me that I could of topped up my fermentor with sanitary water to the 5.5 gal mark and taken a new gravity reading before I pitched my yeast. So now I have wort that has already started fermenting (now about 17 hours later) and I'm wondering if it's too late to add some sanitary water to the 5.5 gal mark? Or, should I just chalk it up as a screw up and enjoy what will end up being 3.5-4 gals of an 8.5% Imperial Afrikan Amber? Also, since I've already pitched my yeast how do I figure out what my new OG will be without taking a new gravity?

 

[daksin]

I think you would be perfectly fine adding water at this point, but yea, definitely boil it and chill it before adding it to your beer. I dont think your finished beer will be too terrible without it, though, but it will be stronger. You probably boiled off more than you anticipated.

 

[Beavdowg]

I'm thinking now I'll just add the water before I keg it but after fermentation is complete. Thanks for the response, though.

 

[daksin]

I would add it now rather than at the end, just as a matter of sanitation. Much less likely for anything to take hold while fermentation is in full swing.

 

[Friedclutch]

I was actually thinking about starting a thread about a part of this topic. I say don't add water now. IMO the beer/yeast are progressing already in the current chemistry and dilluting right now might cause an problem. The other topic..... Who in here actually only gets 1 gallon of evap per boil hr? Yesterday I started a 60 min boil with EIGHT gallons.. It finished out at 6.3 gallons. After trub, under 6 gallons went in the fermentor. And I siphoned quite a bit of trub in there with it. No blazing hard boil either...