Another "how bad did I screw up" question

I made the stupidest mistake ever and this sucks because I was really looking forward to this beer.

So basically I got my boil pot mixed up with the pot that I had let my grain bag sit in which was a secondary pot that I heat up my sparge water in. I thought I forgot some liquid in the bottom of my boil pot and poured it right in to my bucket along with my boiled wort. It was actually just some drainings from my grains which I had already threw away. It was about 1 cup. If I could have, I would have boiled everything, but I do partial boils and top off in the fermentor which I had already done so there was no way I could get a full 5 gallons boiled and cooled at this time of night.

On the other hand, there are some people who won't even use "raw" water in their brew methods and rather do full boils. I just use brita filtered water straight from the tap. Should I be boiling the water that I use to top off my fermentor?

I read a couple threads where people use unboiled wort to start the yeast with, but that supposedly isn't as big a deal since it's such a high concentration of yeast?

Anyway, what's the biggest concern here, infection or taste? If by some chance, it doesn't get infected, how bad will 2 cups of unboiled wort hurt the flavor? Here is my recipe.

Here is my recipe.

Brew Method: Partial Mash
Style Name: Sweet Stout
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5 gallons
Boil Size: 3 gallons
Estimated Efficiency: 65%

ESTIMATED STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.015
ABV (standard): 5.22%
IBU (tinseth): 28.68
SRM (morey): 36.98

FERMENTABLES:
3 lb - Dry Malt Extract - Light - (late addition) (33.3%)
2.5 lb - Pale 2-Row (27.8%)
1 lb - Milk Sugar - (late addition) (11.1%)
0.5 lb - Flaked Barley (5.6%)
0.5 lb - English Crystal 60L (5.6%)
0.5 lb - Pale Chocolate 180L (5.6%)
0.5 lb - American Roasted Barley 300L (5.6%)
0.5 lb - De-Husked Caraf III 450L (5.6%)

HOPS:
0.5 oz - Willamette (AA 4.5) for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil
1 oz - Kent Goldings (AA 5) for 60 min, Type: Leaf/Whole, Use: Boil

MASH STEPS:
1) Temperature, Temp: 154 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 6.25 qt
2) Sparge, Temp: 170 F, Time: 0 min, Amount: 6.25 qt

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
1 tablet - Whirlfloc, Time: 10 min, Type: Other, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - Safale - English Ale Yeast S-04

PRIMING:
Method: Corn Sugar (dextrose)
Amount: 3.5 oz

You will probably be just fine, you can do a complete brew day without sanitizing anything, as long as it is clean you will probably be just fine.
Sanitizing and boiling water is just insurance. Better safe than sorry. But again chances are you will be ok.

I have use non boiled water to top off several times and not had issues. I do put it in a sanitized pitcher though

You'll be fine with the unboiled wort, especially if your fermentation starts off healthy. RDWHAHB!

As for the filtered non-boiled water, I, and many other people, top off with that with no issues.

menerdari said:

Sanitizing and boiling water is just insurance. Better safe than sorry. But again chances are you will be ok.

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turvis said:

I have use non boiled water to top off several times and not had issues. I do put it in a sanitized pitcher though

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the unboiled wort, the runoff from the grain bag is my main concern. I read about some infection, "lacto" that can come from unboiled grains or even grain dust getting in your fermentor. If I mashed at 155, would that have been enough to kill lacto? And doesn't boiling kind of "boil off" any off flavors from the wort and the grains?

I'm still worried, I'll never make this mistake again.

Like others, I think you'll be fine. From the description, it doesn't sound like a lot of water / run off and I think, with all things considered (assuming you are doing a +five gallon batch), it would be diluted enough not to be a risk.

I'm not a chemist, nor do I pretend to be one, but I would think the fermentation would overtake and handle any slight risk of infection due to the amounts of "unclean" water added, considering the overall volume of liquid.

Make sense?

yancydc said:

You'll be fine with the unboiled wort, especially if your fermentation starts off healthy. RDWHAHB!

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jpabian said:

.....I think, with all things considered (assuming you are doing a +five gallon batch), it would be diluted enough not to be a risk.

I'm not a chemist, nor do I pretend to be one, but I would think the fermentation would overtake and handle any slight risk of infection due to the amounts of "unclean" water added, considering the overall volume of liquid.

Make sense?

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Thanks. I took a look at the fermentor (6 gallon glass) this morning, and it was bubbling away with a dark brown foam on top. Hopefully all is well.

yancydc said:

You'll be fine with the unboiled wort, especially if your fermentation starts off healthy. RDWHAHB!

As for the filtered non-boiled water, I, and many other people, top off with that with no issues.

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This, back before i could do full boils i would just pull my faucet head from the kitchen out and fill it up to 5 gallons like it was a hose lol.