Yesterday I went down to my homebrew retailer, planning on buying a simple screen/valve assembly for a cooler. No go. He didn't have any of THOSE left, however he did have an assembly to use an 8-gallon pot as a lauter tun. So I stopped by the hardware store, purchased a step drill, modified the pot for a valve, screen filter, and thermometer (also a purchase @ the HB store), but not before I had walked out of the homebrew store with the ingredients for a Belgian Dubbel and an extra fermentor:
1 lb Briess American Dextrin (carapils malt) 7.5 lbs Muntons English Maris Otter Malt 0.1 lbs Weyermann German Dehusked CaraFa II 0.5 lbs Dingemans Belgian Aromatic Malt 1 lb Dingemans Beglian Special B 1 lb candi sugar 1 lb honey (he had this AWESOME stuff called "Meadowfoam", which is truly delicious, to the point where I may make some meade from it) 1oz Brewers Gold pellets (60 min) 1/2 oz Hallertau (20 min) 1/4 oz Hallertau (10 min) Wyeast #1214 Belgian Abbey Yeast
I came out with a 1.030 boil gravity. Adjusted for temperature, this was closer to 1.045. After adding the candi sugar and honey along with all the other elements in the boil, I was down to about 4 gallons due to some trub and some substantial boil-off. @ the suggestion of my HB retailer's instructions, I added a gallon of water. My OG was then 1.052. Was diluting a bad idea? How can I allow for boil-off?