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hads

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I've got a kit of St Peter's IPA in the FV which I thought I'd filled up to 19 litres as per instructions. I now think the measurements on the FV are wrong and I haven't got enough water in there. It's been in there 6 days and I should be bottling tonight. Can I top it up now before bottling, if not what will be the final result if I leave it with less water than it should have had?
 
hads said:
Can I top it up now before bottling, if not what will be the final result if I leave it with less water than it should have had?
You can "back liquor" but rack of the sediment first!
If you just bottle, you will have less, but at a higher gravity/ABV.
It's your call hads :D
 
How much do you think you are out Hads?

If it isn't much I'd be inclined to just bottle as is. It should be a bit stronger and bit more bitter from my memory of kit brews. I'm pretty sure I made up a cooper's stout 3 or 4l short and it was fine.
 
I think I'm about 4 litres out. I'd rather it was as close to what it should be as possible as I bought the kit because I love the beer you can buy. So, if I racked into another FV added more water and my priming sugar, gave a gentle stir and then bottled, this would be fine.
 
I've never done it but if evanvine says so, he has a great deal more experience than I do. I only made 6 or 7 kits before switching to all grain just over a year ago and I didn't do the St Peters kits, so you may want to take my advice with a pinch of salt.

That said I can't see any real reason not to add a touch more water, the risk of infection from your water would be pretty tiny. Be careful not to aerate the wort when transferring to the bottling bucket and stirring your sugar solution in. Don't panic about bottling tonight away if you want to wait for more advice it should be fine in the FV for bit longer.
 
If it was me I would boil 4 lts of water adding the priming sugar to this. Then allow to cool in your spare FV/BOTTLING BUCKET and gently syphon the beer into this so as it mixes evenly then bottle. Just my option. Good luck with it. :thumb:
 
Thanks for all your great advice. :clap:

As it happened the measurements were not too far out and I have bottled it as it is, it was less than a litre under. :D

I measured 19 litres exactly in my 2nd FV using a measuring jug and marked it, when I racked it to this it was just under. Now all nicely bottled and conditioning in time for Christmas. Happy days
 

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