Adding water que

Northern Brewer General
1

Been lurking here alot but didn’t see this - please redirect me if you know of a thread…

I have been doing the 1 gallon batches and previously brewed WH Honey Ale which came out excellent and I did Caribou Slobber which is sitting on the bottles now waiting for another few weeks.

I decided to brew the Cream Ale and the Dead Ringer IPA. I must have messed up the measuring BC I had WAY less than a gallon when I put it in the carboy. I searched around here and saw threads about adding water so I decided to boil some water and added to both batches to reach the one gallon level. I made sure to sterilize everything either by boiling or using the sanitizer solution.

The Cream Ale fermented so much I put a blow off tube in and it bubbled away for a couple of days. No such drama for the DR but it did bubble away in the carboy and the airlock handled it great. So after a few days everything stopped…just sitting there now about 2 weeks later.

I’m going to leave for another couple of weeks and then bottle, my que is this…

If I did introduce an infection or something would I know - is it still ok to drink (ya know…won’t kill us or anything like that…) Sorry if this is old stuff for the veteran brewers but I am really enjoying brewing so far.

2

Sterilizing would require an autoclave (pressure cooker). We just look for sanitizing. Boiling and Starsan/Iodophor are the tools here.

It is fine to “top off” the fermenter when you have less liquid after the boil. Some people do as you did and boil the water 1st. I know a couple people that just put tap water in. Many people make 5 gallon extract batches but only boil 2-3 gallons of wort. Then add water to bring up to 5g.

If you did introduce a bad bug, you would know it. The beer might still be good to drink. A sour beer is a style some brew. Or it might turn into malt vinegar. Though not drinkable, save it for cooking.

Most likely you are just fine.