Question on diluting wort...

[ViperMan]

So, heh - kinduva GOOD problem... I did another mash tonight using my new grain crusher. Combined with tap water (treated to eliminate chlorine), some basic pH control, and an enzyme rest, I - according to Beersmith - hit 95.1% efficiency on a sessionable fruit beer recipe. I couldn't believe my eyes.

Now, even I'm a bit incredulous, so I'm letting the wort cool overnight (after heating to 180 to knock out any baddies) and will measure again tomorrow before starting my boil.

For now I adjusted Beersmith with my new efficiency and of course the sliders went off the charts. To compensate, I want to add more water to bring everything back to where it should be. (I've already added more hops to the recipe to account for the higher sugar content.)

Can I simply boil some water (gonna use RO water for this) and add to the fermenter after my boil? I want to take a final gravity reading after boiling to make sure I don't over-dilute. My quick, napkin calculation says I need about .8 gallons of water.

I just don't want to screw this one up - it's for my car club at our annual show, and after last year's brew, I set the bar somewhat high for myself this year!

Thanks.

 

[Yooper]

Sure, you can do that. You can use a "dilution tool" to tell you about how much water to add to the volume to get a specific SG and volume.

 

[ViperMan]

A lot of people would probably claim that I'M a "dilution tool"...

I was simply planning on doing "target gravity X current volume / current gravity = target volume"

I could also just fudge the batch volume in Beersmith until the OG drops to what I'm aiming for, then subtract my current volume from that number and add that much water.