Newbie to all grain needs advice

[phat]

Hi guys and girls,

As the post says I've just moved to all grain today. I've started with the love brewing hobgoblin clone.

Mashed it, sparged it, topped up liquor and boiled it. Gravity before boil was 1.050, gravity after boil is 1.055.

I now have 3 gallons of brew in the fv, the kit should have made 4 gallons. Do I top up the fv with a gallon of water, or do I leave well alone and accept that I'll have less than 3 gallon of beer come xmas???

Thanks in advance for your advice. Paul

 

[MyQul]

Just top it up. Have you pitched yet? You can still do it after fermentation has finished BTW

 

[phat]

Yeah, I've pitched it, but only 20 min ago. I'll go and top it up now. Thanks very much

 

[MyQul]

You can top up at any stage :thumb:

 

[cheapbrew]

What was the expected OG for the recipe?

Topping up to 4 litres with an OG of 1055 will give you an OG of around 1041/1042

 

[phat]

expected 1.050

... I thought that it would drop the gravity when topped up. But I'm guessing that I should still get a 4(ish)% beer in the end???

It smells good, so I'm hoping that it tastes good when its done :-?

 

[Sandimas]

If I were you I'd top it up just a little, to achieve your target OG to get the beer you want. If you add another gallon you'll get the volume you want but not the OG, personally I'd rather sacrifice a bit of volume to get the right beer.

Everyones brewing process is different, with different mash efficiency, so it's hard to exactly hit the right volume at the right OG like you can do with a tinned kit.

 

[Brewmarc]

Iv been here many times in my early brewing be very wary about adding water Direct from tap straight to the brew when cool. Schlorine & chloramine can effect fermentation & flavour not to mention at the worst case can introduce infectin. At very least Boil/coolfirst.
Far better, get a refractometer & add water towards the end of the boil to obtain your target OG/ measured in Plato or Brix that way all is sterile & spot on before chilling.
Another point your pre boil gravity is too high imo assuming your FG will be around 1.010 you need a post boil gravity of about 1.048 to achieve a rally nice 5% ABV so keep sparring untill your running are no lower than 1.008 & add water preboil to achieve your target.
One nice thing about a refractometer is you can measure your wort at boiling as you only need a drop.