Well, I just started my first batch of SP, and I already screwed up! I topped up to 7.5 gallons (I'm doing a 1.5x batch) but I forgot to add the lemon juice. I put it all in the bucket, which brought the total up over 8 gallons, and now I'm wondering what to do while I wait for the must to "rest" before I get the yeast starter going. I'm at 1.066 now, I kinda want to bump it up to 1.070 or greater while I've already got 10.5 pounds of sugar in the batch
I only have about 1.5 inches of head space in the bucket as it sits now. Should I drain it back down to 7.5 gallons and just call the extra a loss? Save the extra and dump it in the next batch? Drink it now? I suppose since I still have 48oz of lemon juice to go in, plus the yeast starter, I should pull the volume down a bit, right? I don't know what the foaming is like on this (is it proper to call it a kraeusen?), does it get pretty tall?
What would you do?
EDIT: I went ahead and drained 96oz of the must back into my original RealLemon bottles and labeled them as "must" for a future and/or mini batch. I'm back down to 7.5 gallons, missing a tiny bit of nutrient and energizer (whatever was diluted into the whole batch, so I'm basically down a bit over 9% - not worried about that) but otherwise ready to go. I bumped the entire batch up to 1.070 before I parted it out, too.
Also, 500th post!!!