Watering down beer

[An Ankoù]

But how would you know if you do reproduce it?

Spot on.
But would not the finest brew ever brewed shine forth in all its glory and majesty and be self-evidently the one and only true Boddies?
Sounds like a Monty Python sketch. You're right.

 

[Random Badger]

Spot on.
But would not the finest brew ever brewed shine forth in all its glory and majesty and be self-evidently the one and only true Boddies?
Sounds like a Monty Python sketch. You're right.

Only the true Boddies denies its divinity.

 

[Galena]

Like the perfect wave, after brewing the perfect pint, you drink it and die.

 

[Arcs]

Be very careful what you say about Boddingtons.

Whatever it is like now, it was once the finest brew ever made. And nobody has ever been able to reproduce it. Brewed by wizards, I believe. Wizards who disappeared into the night, when Whitbread bought the brewery.

Boddingtons is today's Watneys

 

[UKSkydiver]

*Thread Resurrection Alert*

I would like to liquor back after fermentation

For a change, I have brewed a kit. It's Tom Caxtons Best Bitter. It says to make up to 23 or 20 litres (40/36 pints)

I only have a 15 litre fermenting vessel - so I have topped up the water to ~14 litres. OG is 1066

I would like to liquor back after fermentation - and I'd like to make it up to 19 litres for serving from a corny keg.

I am using Kveik Voss which I expect will take the FG to about 1010 giving a final ABV of 7.35%

If I liquor back to the full 19 litres, it would mean adding about 5 litres which would be about 26% - recommended - yes or no?

This calc suggests that adding 4.7 litres to 14 litres of 7.35% ABV will yield 18.7 litres of 5.5% (33% water addition)

By the time I take off other losses such as trub, we're probably looking at max 13 litres so adding 6 litres (to make 19 litres) is hitting the 50% mark.

Quality over quantity, but the less water I add, the stronger the resulting brew - not that I mind a +6% brew.

Questions:
What would be considered a reasonable percentage water addition prior to 'packaging'? Max 25%? Less?

At present, I plan to boil (and cool) the additional water to remove chlorine and reduce oxygen. I was thinking I could also start to carbonate it in the keg prior to racking the beer on to it. Good idea or bad?

I have chosen Kveik Voss purely because it's roasting hot at the moment and I don't want to keep cooling to 17-18c. I have a fermentation chamber and I can set this at +25'c I see many posts suggesting to under pitch Voss.

Given the OG 1066 and 14 litre volume, should I be adding the whole 11g pack?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Nicks90]

As its a kit, the abv and ibu and colour will be set according to the instructions. So brewing short would lead to a) higher abv, but b) higher bitterness.
As you are back liquoring to roughly where it was meant to be, then you should be fine. As you have said, oxygenation will be the big issue. if you can get rid of that and syphon the beer on the water without introducing the dreaded O2 post fermentation then it should be fine.

The issues comes if you are doing all grain, as hop utilisation changes according to boil volume and abv and calculating bitterness can be challenging.

 

[An Ankoù]

I liquor back frequently. I have a 15l kettle for stove top brews which leaves me with 12-13 litres of wort. I may aim to make a 15litre or a 20 litre batch. There are two ways of doing this, either continue sparging to get a bit more goodness out of the mash, boil it separately and then calculate the average OG and top up with water to the target OG. Or just us one pot and top up with water.
Some things to note: The hop utilisation will be reduced because of the increased gravity of the boil. This needs to be accounted for; top up to target OG rather than target batch size. If you end up with 18 litres rather than 20, it's not the end of the world. Boil all the hops in the main kettle, if using a secondary kettle, don't forget to put a bit of copper findings in there; I chill and then top up with new, unopened bottles of low mineral mineral water, no need to boil, its a waste of energy.
Works every time.