Beer Forum

I am wondering if I have enough water in my Dead Ringer IPA primary fermentation tank. It's my first brew, and it's based on 5 gallons of beer production.

I boiled 2.5 gallons of water, added my ingredients and did the 1-hour boil w/hops additions.
I poured the wort into my fermentation tank with 2 additional gallons of water, and then topped it off with another 1/2 gallon to bring it up to the 5 gallon mark. I did everything exactly as the recipe specified.

However, after sealing the tank, I noticed that there was a good 1/2" to 1" of sediment that settled out of the mixture to the bottom of the fermentation tank, and wondered if I should have added more water to have 5 gallons of liquid, as it seems that there is a 1/2 gallon or so of sediment sitting on the bottom. (It would have brought the level of the fermentation tank up over the 5 gallon mark, but I am wondering if that 5 gallon mark takes all the sediment into consideration in the recipe.)

Is it possible that the wort is too rich? Is so, can I add more water either to the existing primary fermentation, or possibly to the secondary fermentation tank in a week or so? Or, do the experienced brewers on this forum think that I am safe?

Most people scale up to 5.5 gallons to account for trub loss, but that recipe was designed for 5 gallons. Adding more water will just lower the gravity of your beer, which you don't want to do.


Welcome to the BN!

+1
But don't sweat it. You'll end up with a little less than you originally thought but that's ok.
Just let it go to completion now and calculate based on 5.5 gallons next time like Nervous Dad said.
This is your first beer. No need to start fucking with it and risk ruining it.
There will be many other batches.

HTH-

Thanks for the feedback everyone. I appreciate it. Looking forward to the taste test in about 5 or 6 weeks.

Good Deal. Now, get started on Batch 2 to get your pipeline full.

Good luck and let us know how it goes