Hi guys. I made a great stout a week ago, and yesterday when I racked it into the carboy I wound up with about 4.5 gallons. I don't think I lost that much when racking, so I'm beginning to wonder if I forgot to top off my fermenting bucket after I added the wort to bring it up to 5 gallons. So my question is am I better off just leaving it alone, or should I add a half gallon of water to the carboy? Thanks!
Is it OK to add water after racking?
- Thread starter Otterwan
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worksnorth
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Otterwan said:
You called it a great stout! I'd leave it as is this time. Adjust some things next time to give you the desired amount.
Cheers
If you really feel the need to add water...make sure it has been boiled and then cooled.
But, I agree with the others...leave it alone. I'd rather have 4.5 gallons of great stout than 5 gallons of pretty good stout
But, I agree with the others...leave it alone. I'd rather have 4.5 gallons of great stout than 5 gallons of pretty good stout
Why did you rack to a secondary? There is really no need for that unless you're dry hopping or have "huge amounts" of trub in the primary. And even then, it's still better to condition out in the primary for a week or 2 after the fermentation has ended.
Did you hit the OG of your recipe when you transferred to the fermenting vessel? If it was a bit high, you could correct it down by adding some (sterile) water. If your OG was spot on or lower, all you'd be doing is diluting good beer, so better leave it alone.
Did you hit the OG of your recipe when you transferred to the fermenting vessel? If it was a bit high, you could correct it down by adding some (sterile) water. If your OG was spot on or lower, all you'd be doing is diluting good beer, so better leave it alone.
Thanks all, that's what I thought (leave it alone) but it's nice to have some backup. I'm using a Jasper's kit, and they recommend one week in the bucket and two in the carboy then bottling. I hadn't really thought about it until IslandLizard brought it up, but there was a lot of trub, so I'm sure I lost quite a bit of volume there. Also, it was in the primary for 8 days and had nearly quit fermenting (airlock bubbling about every 90 seconds). Again, thanks for the quick responses.
Best practices, if you do use a secondary, is to make sure that fermentation is totally finished before transferring to secondary. In the old days with less refined malts and yeasts it was common practice transfer with a little fermentation left to be done. That is now considered not to be optimum.
I also say leave it alone.
I also think that a secondary is unnecessary unless you are adding something or bulk aging for many months.
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