recipe too small

[Radler]

I've just brewed a batch which has come out a bit short and I think there is enough stuff in there now that once it settles I will lose even more volume. Can anyone tell me if they have ever put some boiled and cooled water into the secondary so as to bring the volume back up. I have had this happen before with a 5 gallon batch working itself down to 3.5 gallons (lots of raspberries left in the bottom) and the beer was pretty bad. If not the secondary then maybe the bottling bucket. Thanks.

[BillyBock]

You could...but make sure the water's boiled long enough to drive out the oxygen. Otherwise you'll oxidize the beer later down the road. Also when transferring, do so gently and don't splash the water into the beer.

It sounds like your evaporation rate was higher than you expected. See if you can determine what it is so you end up with the right post-boil volume next time. Other ingredients also absorb liquid--especially whole hops--which also needs to be factored in. Personally, if I got the gravity I was shooting for on this batch, I'd just live with the smaller volume.

[Radler]

my intended OG was 1.101 and what it actually came to was 1.130 (I'm not so good at this eh?), so I think I could deal with a half gallon dilution. It's a 3 gallon batch.