Help! Only added 19 liters of water to a 23 liter kit!

[Grey Oak]

I haven't done a beer kit in ages but did one quickly last week. I bought a 40 pint kit and converted it to liters using Alexa, she said 19 which I did. But that's American quantity and now my brew is 4 liters short, it's fermenting nicely, want to bottle it in a week. Any ideas from anyone as to what I should do??

If I leave it at 19 liters, will the beer be richer, stronger?

If I should top it up with water should I boil it first? I use 100% spring well water.

Cheers

Sam

 

[Nicks90]

I did virtually all my cheaper kits to 19l, as it gives them more flavour and mouthfeel. But yes it did up the alcohol by about 0.5%
Unless you are absolutely insistent on sticking to the desired percentage, you could add 4l boiled and cooled water to 'back liquor' it

 

[moto748]

I tend to assume that gallons and pints are American measures in recipes unless stated otherwise. Are you in the US, or the UK, or elsewhere?

40 UK pints = 5 UK gallons =22.7 litres

40 US pints = 18.9 litres.

You can just top it up with water, or leave it to get stronger beer. Me, I'd just use tap-water, but that's what I brew with anyway, Depends what your water supply is like.

But then again, Alexa wanted strangling at birth, if you want my opinion!

 

[Cheshire Cat]

If you just use litres as a unit of measure you don't have the problem lol.
As has been said either leave it or dilute with plain unboiled water.

 

[moto748]

As Cheshire says, a litre is always a litre, world-wide. A pint or a gallon, well, it all depends...

 

[Grey Oak]

Thanks for the help, I'm going to leave it at 19 liters and see how it tastes.