Water in the secondary?

I brewed a batch of dead ringer that had an OG of 1.75, (should have an OG of 1.64). After letting it ferment in the primary for a while, I noticed the volume was close to a half gallon below what it should be, which would explain the higher than normal OG. Would I have any problems if I topped it off to the recommended volume when racking to secondary with water? Of course I’d take the necessary sanitizing measures when doing so, but I just wanted to see if anybody else has done this before with success.

First off; What is your reason for racking to secondary? I would not just add water. When you prime for bottling you could add 1 quart of water with the appropriate amount of priming sugar.
Keeping respnses short. Three bandaged fingers.

[quote=“flars”]First off; What is your reason for racking to secondary? I would not just add water. When you prime for bottling you could add 1 quart of water with the appropriate amount of priming sugar.
Keeping respnses short. Three bandaged fingers.[/quote]

The recipe recommended racking to secondary, during which time I’d need to dry hop. I just figured since the volume was low and the OG was high, topping off with to the recommended volume may fix the problem.

[quote=“S Wagner”]
The recipe recommended racking to secondary, during which time I’d need to dry hop. I just figured since the volume was low and the OG was high, topping off with to the recommended volume may fix the problem.[/quote]

No problem on the secondary; I use secondaries whenever I have additions (e.g, dry hops). Also, excellent advice to wait on the water addition until the bottling step. No need to create more work for yourself until then. Alternatively, you could just live with a slightly stronger beer. It’ll still taste great.