Just siphoned to 2ndary with a very hoppy...

[bellaruche]

and dry hopped Pale Ale. My 5 gallon came up a about 1/2 gallon short, due to sludginess of extra thick bottom layer. At this point, can more water be added, or do I enjoy a delicious 4.5 gallon batch?

 

[dfc]

I'd just leave it at 4.5 gallons.

 

[likwidbliss]

Delicious vs watery?

+ 6.23 x 10^23 for the delicious 4.5 gallon batch.

You are always going to have some loss. I know it seems like you have wasted money, but I am all for delicious beer.

 

[riverfrontbrewer]

I would enjoy a 4.5 gallon batch. If you cut it w H2O you will also be cutting the hoppiness you speak of, as well as abv. Will it hurt anything though? No!

Good Luck!

 

[dfc]

Delicious vs watery?

+ 6.23 x 10^23 for the delicious 4.5 gallon batch.

You are always going to have some loss. I know it seems like you have wasted money, but I am all for delicious beer.

Delicious beer is delicious.

 

[Justibone]

+ 6.23 x 10^23 for the delicious 4.5 gallon batch.

Avogadro sez: "Don't dilute da beerz! *hic*"

:rockin:

To OP: if you are really bothered by the volume loss, you can top up with beer or more wort, but not with water. You'll taste the water.

 

[bellaruche]

Thanks... My heart of beer-loving hearts knew the answer to that already, but hey, it's a new chemistry for me, so I gotta ask. Thanks for the feedback! 100% replies for no dilution.

 

[humann_brewing]

and dry hopped Pale Ale. My 5 gallon came up a about 1/2 gallon short, due to sludginess of extra thick bottom layer. At this point, can more water be added, or do I enjoy a delicious 4.5 gallon batch?

next time you could toss your dry hops in the primary and just leave it longer for the yeast to settle out more and create a more compact yeast cake. That way you won't loose as much when you rack it.

 

[phatuna]

Next time you might adjust your recipe. I always (try) to go into primary with 5.5 gallons, knowing that I'll lose 1/2 gallon to trub. I shoot for 5 gallons into bottles or keg.

 

[SnallygasterBrewery]

I always have this idea of dry hopping in primary as wasting some of the aromatics with CO2 pushing stuff out of carboy -- I always have this feeling that it's just carrying off a lot of the aromatics. But adding it later in primary after fermentation is done and things are just settling might not be a bad idea like someone else suggested. Or like phatuna said you sometimes just have to count on more loss with stuff like this, so you can shoot a little over your volume -- either way it'll be good I'm sure.

 

[humann_brewing]

I always have this idea of dry hopping in primary as wasting some of the aromatics with CO2 pushing stuff out of carboy -- I always have this feeling that it's just carrying off a lot of the aromatics. But adding it later in primary after fermentation is done and things are just settling might not be a bad idea like someone else suggested. Or like phatuna said you sometimes just have to count on more loss with stuff like this, so you can shoot a little over your volume -- either way it'll be good I'm sure.

the flip side of that is if you dump the hops in with a couple of gravity points to go the co2 generated will help drive off the oxygen introduced with the hops.

This is my method now on hoppy beers and if you could taste my APA on tap right now, your mind would be changed.

 

[krisagon]

I'm in the same exact boat as you... I made what I was hoping would be 5G of hoppy goodness, and was shocked at the amount of crud at the bottom of the fermenter.

No diluting though!
Next time, I'll use some malt extract to bump up the OG a bit more in case this happens again.