First brew "F" ups diatribe...

[D-Wes]

So here's the story:
So I am making my fist brew "ever" and I am attempting an Imperial Russian Stout (my new love). So things are going well, its boiling, I am strutting around the the apt. with my Stone IRS touting I am the next Greg Koch. So flame out happens, I add the hops, stir, and put in filtered ice and filtered water to bump it back up to 1 gallon (a 1 gallon brew if that didn't tip you off). So as I put the ice in (from sanitized ice trays) I have one ice cube splash in and burn the crap outta my arm, so in a rush I put them in a bowl (unsanitized) while holding the rest of the ice cubes from falling onto the counter (unsanitized hands) and then go from bowl to kettle then into the sink with cold water to cool down under 80*. I wait till about 81* and aerate by racking the wort from the top of my counter in my bottling bucket to floor height in my fermenting bucket. THEN I put 60% of my liquid yeast into the fermenting bucket but the "thicker" yeast is surrounding the threads of the vial and stuck in the cap so I dump the whole thing into the bucket . I put the air sealed lid with air lock onto the bucket and stick it into my closet, 60* at the moment but runs at 69* on average. So am I screwed on my first batch or what? I am really pissed right now......

 

[ScottG58]

You're fine. You made beer. Look for a thread here where people list things that they did and still made beer.

 

[billpaustin]

You are learning fast, grasshopper

 

[mattd2]

Did you mean to throuw the vile in there or did it slip?

 

[branCHEs]

I have found that beer is amazingly resilient. When i first started i was sure i contaminated every batch i brewed. 15 or so batches later, 0 contaminates. Knock on wood...

I have become less and less sanitary with each batch i brew, however i was incredibly anal about sanitization to begin with so likely i sanitize like a normal person now.

Lol

 

[D-Wes]

Entire "contents" of the vial, 1 gallon batch only needed 60% of the vial according to mr. Malty.

 

[GASoline71]

You will be fine. I have been brewing for 2 years and have only had one batch turn out "funky". But I still drank it. I've made a lot of mistakes a long the way. Still make them now and again. But I'm told by all that consume my brews, that I make killer beer.

Fear not... wait it out... there's beer at the end.

Gary

 

[JDFlow]

Your beer is going to be awesome. Pay attention to what the people on here are writing.

 

[woozy]

So let's see...

you exposed a bit of frozen water to the surface area of a plate before adding it to boiling hot wort. And you used one and a half times more yeast than you needed to.

That's about it, right?

Is the beer going to be okay? well, you tell me...

 

[woozy]

Sanitation is like a bicycle helmet. Wearing one doesn't mean you won't get injured; it just means you lessen your chances of injury by 80%.
And not wearing one doesn't mean you will get injured; it just means everyone watching you arrogantly push your luck secretly hopes you will.

Except instead of ending up handicapped and/or brain damaged, with sanitation you have to drink a funny tasting beer.

 

[Jaybird]

D-Wes

The only thing I see wrong......



YOU ARE ONLY MAKING 1 GALLON BATCHES!!!!

Cheers
Jay

 

[D-Wes]

I have a super small apt on the second floor with no garage so a couple of 5 gallon buckets and an equally large kettle would be impossible to store. Once I move in the next few months I am going to 5 gallon batches.

 

[LowNotes]

I have a super small apt on the second floor with no garage so a couple of 5 gallon buckets and an equally large kettle would be impossible to store. Once I move in the next few months I am going to 5 gallon batches.

You are going to love it. It is only a tiny bit more work to do 5g batches, but there is something really nice about seeing a big bucket-O-beer bubbling away, and when you bottle (or keg) and have a small tower of beer waiting for you to drink it, it warms the soul.

As far as your first batch? As others have said, you will almost certainly be fine. If I were a betting man, not knowing anything else about your process, I would take 20:1 odds that your beer turns out just fine.

Relax, Don't Worry, Drink A Home Brew. Now that you have your first batch, you will be able to enjoy the wisdom in these words next time.

 

[D-Wes]

Thanks for the pick me ups guys. I am already contemplating what type of IPA I am going to do this weekend!

 

[Homercidal]

Just relax, don't worry, and have another commercial beer until your homebrew is ready!

Like others have said, your odds of getting an infection are pretty small. Good sanitation is the extra little insurance that helps make sure your odds are incredibly small. I doubt what you did would be a high risk event.

Now go buy a bigger fermenter and get brewing!

 

[woozy]

... or another way of looking at it. We practice sanitation so that when we *do* screw up we can shrug and say "oh, well, *that* won't do anything!".

 

[johngaltsmotor]

As all of the experienced brewers would say RDWHAHB (or since this if your first brew, substitute another Stone). It gets easier as you go, but the point to remember is this is supposed to be a hobby. Hobbies are fun - enjoy the process. Granted, it took me about 2 years to get to this point myself. At first I could have called my beer "Headless Chicken Brewery" because I was running around so much, now there's plenty of time to stand back and fall into a trance watching the wort roll and boil.

What's the worst that could happen? It'll still taste better than Bud Light

 

[andy6026]

My first batch, which is currently bottle conditioning was an almost entire disaster. Other than stirring it with my d1ck, I probably made almost every mistake that can be made. I may have to dump it yet.

Lets see, how many mistakes did I make?

Didn't bother washing the equipment, but I did sanitize it.

I used too much water - probably about 1/2 gallon too much.

Someone had the bright idea to throw the can holding the extract into the boil as well to get all the extract goodness out of it. Took about 10 minutes to try and fish it back out.

I boiled the pre-hopped extract can and all the DME for an hour, whereas I've since read that most are meant to be late additions or at flame out.

My friend charged with re-hydrating the yeast dumped it all over the counter amidst bread-crumbs and other standard counter-dirt and then used his unsanitized hand to sweep it into the container for rehydration (he later told me).

Pitched the yeast somewhat high - around 80F.

Forgot to ad the priming sugar to the bottling bucket before adding the beer. Stirred it (if you can call it that) with my racking cane.

Didn't notice that if I tipped the bottling bucket there's a few liters more beer hiding beneath the spigot level - so that got wasted.

Huge bottling error - used about 5x as much priming sugar than is ideal . I've had to uncap them all to relieve the pressure, and then recapped... without bothering to sanitize the caps.

...and that's all in the first batch.

Is this going to make beer? Probably. Is it going to be drinkable? I'm having my doubts, but I'm sure going to find out.

 

[ericbw]

My first batch, which is currently bottle conditioning was an almost entire disaster. Other than stirring it with my d1ck, I probably made almost every mistake that can be made. I may have to dump it yet.

Lets see, how many mistakes did I make?

Didn't bother washing the equipment, but I did sanitize it.

I used too much water - probably about 1/2 gallon too much.

Someone had the bright idea to throw the can holding the extract into the boil as well to get all the extract goodness out of it. Took about 10 minutes to try and fish it back out.

I boiled the pre-hopped extract can and all the DME for an hour, whereas I've since read that most are meant to be late additions or at flame out.

My friend charged with re-hydrating the yeast dumped it all over the counter amidst bread-crumbs and other standard counter-dirt and then used his unsanitized hand to sweep it into the container for rehydration (he later told me).

Pitched the yeast somewhat high - around 80F.

Forgot to ad the priming sugar to the bottling bucket before adding the beer. Stirred it (if you can call it that) with my racking cane.

Didn't notice that if I tipped the bottling bucket there's a few liters more beer hiding beneath the spigot level - so that got wasted.

Huge bottling error - used about 5x as much priming sugar than is ideal . I've had to uncap them all to relieve the pressure, and then recapped... without bothering to sanitize the caps.

...and that's all in the first batch.

Is this going to make beer? Probably. Is it going to be drinkable? I'm having my doubts, but I'm sure going to find out.

The original poster should have no problems. You should. Ha.

 

[Shooter]

Huge bottling error - used about 5x as much priming sugar than is ideal . I've had to uncap them all to relieve the pressure, and then recapped... without bothering to sanitize the caps.

Everything else you listed is problematic, but you may get lucky and the errors won't have any major effect that makes the beer undrinkable. However, this priming sugar error is not good!!!

 

[andy6026]

Everything else you listed is problematic, but you may get lucky and the errors won't have any major effect that makes the beer undrinkable. However, this priming sugar error is not good!!!

Ha! Tell me about it. It's almost like I tried everything possible to screw up that first batch. But I figured time would likely heal all the other wounds. How to take dissolved sugar out of a batch though...? That one has still got me stumped. I just hope over time and with pressure release the yeast will be able to eat most of that sugar and render the beer drinkable.

If brewing by trial and error is a learning process with a curve, then I sure learned a lot with that first batch and it was one hell of a steep mountain. If I had more brains I'd probably step away from the equipment, but nope, I'm hopping right back on the horse.

 

[feinbera]

I just hope over time and with pressure release the yeast will be able to eat most of that sugar and render the beer drinkable.

Oh, the yeasties will eat it all, don't worry about that. Keep on top of your pressure-releasing, though, if you don't want those bottles to explode...

 

[feinbera]

Also, something to read while you're RDWHAHB'ing...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wh...where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/

 

[andy6026]

Also, something to read while you're RDWHAHB'ing...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wh...where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/

yeah, I read that and it inspired me not to dump the batch. I think the lesson for the OP is that he'll likely be fine. I hope after I ride this one out my batch will be fine too. In the mean time I'll just relax with one I got from the local U-brew.