Diluting Wort

[Benfleet Brewery]

Just finished brew day, pitched the yeast and cleaned up but when I went inside to check the OG reading of the sample I took to write up my notes and realised I’ve overshot my predicted OG by quite a lot. Brewers friend predicted it to be 1.050 but it’s ended up at 1.060. I really don’t want a 6.5% lager. I’ve seen a few threads on this and it appears that diluting now might be better than doing so when it’s finished. I’ve just boiled 2 litres of water. Planning on pouring this in when it’s cooled down. Do you think that’ll work?

 

[matt76]

Yeah it's fine, I've done this ("liquoring back") several times, either with cooled boiled water or new unopened bottles of Tesco Ashbeck.

Just be mindful of a few things:
- If you're taking another gravity sample after you've diluted make sure it's properly mixed!
- Make sure your diluted wort is down to the correct temperature before pitching your yeast.

 

[An Ankoù]

Just finished brew day, pitched the yeast and cleaned up but when I went inside to check the OG reading of the sample I took to write up my notes and realised I’ve overshot my predicted OG by quite a lot. Brewers friend predicted it to be 1.050 but it’s ended up at 1.060. I really don’t want a 6.5% lager. I’ve seen a few threads on this and it appears that diluting now might be better than doing so when it’s finished. I’ve just boiled 2 litres of water. Planning on pouring this in when it’s cooled down. Do you think that’ll work?

No problem and the maths is easy. I do it all the time for session beers, brewing a 12 to 15 litre batch to liquor back to 15 to 20 litres. Guinness, apparently, do it as a matter of course.

 

[The Baron]

It will be OK just do try not to liquor back too much as it is at the expense of body in the beer and will thin it out but 2 litres should be ok

 

[obscure]

I quite often misjudge my boil off and end up with maybe a litre less than expected (I do 9L batches) and have taken to just topping up with water, and It doesn’t seem to have had a negative effect.

 

[RichardM]

There's a calculator here Dilution And Boiloff Gravity Calculator | Brewer's Friend (brewersfriend.com) to help work out how much water you need. When I do it I just add tap water. I don't bother boiling it...if it's OK to drink it's OK to dilute with.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Ok, thanks everyone

I added 2 litres cooled boiled water, only because of quite high chlorine in my tap water and a worry about infection. Brewers friend suggested this would bring my OG down to 1.053 so I’ll just assume there or there abouts rather than dipping stuff in to get a true reading. I’ll be happy if it ends up circa 5.5% and still tastes ok.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

It will be OK just do try not to liquor back too much as it is at the expense of body in the beer and will thin it out but 2 litres should be ok

If it does end up thin with no body that’ll probably bring it right into the category of many commercial lagers

 

[Wynne]

Post-boil wort dilution is normal practice in commercial brewing. It is easier to dilute boiled wort to hit the desired gravity than to increase the dissolved sugar content through post-boil additions or a longer boil.

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Why boil the dilution water? Add a fraction of a campden tablet.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Why boil the dilution water? Add a fraction of a campden tablet.

I was a bit worried about doing that. Don’t people put them in wine to stop fermentation?

 

[Wynne]

At the brewery where I help out,we use potable cooling water from the plate heat- exchanger to sparge the hop-bed and recover entrained wort.