Over shooting OG

[beejay]

So I was brewing a pilot batch of a WeeHeavy with a four hour boil, trying to match the authentic process for the style. I had slightly misjudged my evaporation rate, which made a huge difference over the four hour boil.

I was aiming for 5.5 gallons @ ~ 1.100

Ended up with 4.5 gallons @ ~1.123

I aerated and pitched a suffecient slurry and is happily fermenting at 57F

now my question is do I just suck it up and accept the stronger beer and thus a higher than expected IBU or do I dilute with a gallon of water?

If I am to dilute, when is the best time to do so? Fermentation has just started, is it safe to add water now or should I wait till secondary or even till packaging? Is it safe to use distilled water or should I sterilize the water and cool it before adding it?

I'm not too worried about the beer being stronger, but more so about the increased IBUs...

What do you think I should do?

[wiredgourmet]

Add unboiled water now (no harm in a little more O2 at this point), or deaerated water later. 1.123 will give you some fermentation issues if you've never dealt with gravity this high; no worries if you already know what to expect.

But mostly, don't you want the pilot batch to at least resemble what you plan to put into production? That's the chief reason why I would correct it. It's hard enough to scale down to 5 gal and get a feel for the beer; if you have IG this far out, a 5 gal batch gets even less relevant.