blending for volume question

hi everyone,

first time posting and i have a question that's actually several questions in one and i'm hoping that i can get a definitive answer from you guys !

so, i brew alone (all grain) and can handle up to 25l brews without too much problem. any more than this however and i can't do the lifting without assistance. so, i'd like to produce 40l brews and wanted to use blending for volume to help achieve this.

from what i've read, i can brew a beer with a high fg, then once fermentation is finished, add boiled and cooled water (to remove the oxygen) when bottling to achieve the desired fg.

however, it would be easier for me to add the water when putting the boiled wort into the fermenter (as i bottle direct from the fermenting vessels).

so i guess my question is this:
can i add the water after chilling the wort and before pitching the yeast ?
if yes, can i use ordinary cold tap water (my supply is clean and free of chemicals) or does the water need to be boiled and cooled ?
does the ph, or any other aspect of the water that i add, need to be adjusted ?

ok, well that's the issue. if anyone can help i would very much appreciate the assistance.

cheers,

jon

You can add plain tap water pre-fermentation, but should consider treating for chlorine or chloromine.

No pH adjustment is needed. However, if you're adding minerals for flavor reasons, then heating if not boiling is required.

I regularly use tap water to reach my desired volume if it comes up short. Personally I'm on a well, and my water is filtered through a hundred feet of sandy soil (I can barely grow grass!), so I don't treat it. But if I was in the city I'd probably use bottled water for that purpose.

thanks guys, your help is much appreciated. it seemed logical that i could but just couldn't find any literature on-line to back it up !
cheers!
jon

Hey Jon,

The search term for The Google is "high gravity brewing dilution".  http://bfy.tw/5xqP

Beersmith has a dilution tool just for this purpose (and others of course). http://www.beersmith.com/help2/index.html?dilution_tool.htm

Here is a search result for BYO http://byo.com/hops/item/237-blending-for-volume-techniques


Cheers!

hi jomebrew,
and thanks for the links. i'd come across the byo article before but i wanted to avoid fermenting a high gravity wort prior to blending as suggested in this article (and which is why i posted the question about adding the water prior to pitching the yeast).
in any case many thanks for taking the time to reply !
cheers,
jon