Many mistakes, wondering if my brew will survive

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Dolemite78

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So below is a run-down of some mis-steps I had while brewing last weekend. Tell me if I'm doomed. Probably just paranoid, although there were a lot. It was just one of those days where I wasn't thinking straight and couldn't do anything right, lol.

Amber Autumn ale LME kit from Midwest. Brewed Friday afternoon.

1. Boil went slightly above my preconditioned line in my Aluminum kettle

2. When attempting to cool with my new Wort Chiller, one of the fittings came loose and misted/sprayed a minor amount of hose water in the top of my brew. Kettle was probably at about 215 degrees when this happened, I would imagine no more than a couple tablespoons got in before I could get the water shut off.

3. I didn't pre-boil the copper wort chiller. When it hit the Wort to sanitize for 15min was the first time it got wet.

4. I messed up when adding my yeast to 1/3 cup water. Directions stated to boil the water and then cool to 36-38 degrees before adding yeast. I didn't boil the water, but used bottled water. I also added the yeast at about 68 degrees then realized my error and stuck it in the freezer for the 15 min wait time.

5. I had serious timing issues when it came to pitching my yeast. Above I mentioned the temperature error, but more problematic was the fact that when the 15min were up on the yeast (per instructions) I hadn't sufficiently cooled my Wort. I tried to pick the lesser of two evils and decided to pitch the yeast at about 85 degrees vice letting the yeast sit around much longer than the 25 minutes that had already passed.

6. Not sure what the expectation should be, however I noticed my fermenter was bubbling at around the 8 hr mark. It bubbled for about 3 days, now it appears to have stopped. I plan to take a gravity reading when I get home today and see where I'm at. If I remember correctly my SG was 1.042, got it wrote down at home just don't have it with me.
 
I'm a new brewer myself, but I think you'll be alright. Fermentation started withint 12 hours and lasted a few days and that seems like a good sign. The wort chiller would have been sanitized in the boiling wort and as long as it was free of dirt and such it should be alright. The water from the chiller would have been good and sanitized too,a it wasn't too much anyway. Just relax and be patient. With my first batch, I was so sure I contaminated it at least at two seperate points after the boil, but it tasted good in the end.
 
The ONLY thing that I can see it is the pitching temp of your wort when you pitched your yeast. Although, I think it will be fine. Next time, just pitch your yeast dry. Other than that, I think you'll be fine. For the most part, it can be pretty forgiving.
 
Chilling the water down to near freezing before adding yeast is a bad idea. Can we say thermal shock? Those instructions must have typos.
Never heard of that one. Don't worry about how long the yeast re-hydrates till you get the wort down to pitch temp. It's not super critical. But re0hydratimg in water is less stressful than just pitching it on the wort. That's why many yeast packets are over 11g. It slowed down because initial fermentation is over. It'll start the uneventful crawl down to FG.
 
You're fine, RDWHAHB.

Out of all of that stuff, the only mentionable mistake was hydrating the yeast. The directions probably meant 36-38degrees C, or around 95-105 degrees F, that is normally the temp you want to rehydrate at. It is not super-mission-critical. throwing them in the freezer did thermally shock them though (twice actually, when they hit the freezer and then when they went from near freezing to 85~ F wort. Oh well, enough of them lived to start fermentation by the sounds of it.

So yeah, you're ok. :D Don't rush the gravity reading, I wait at least a week before doing it for most ales. It's better to wait than take it too early and need to take it again. (and risk infection twice).
 
Thanks all for boosting my confidece. I am pretty sure Celsius was the intended temp as well, however I am almost certain it said F not C. Wish I hadn't trashed the empty packet, would love to go back and look. I thought the temp looked strange and re-read it just to make sure.

The good news is that it never reached that temp or anywhere near it. I rehydrated the yeast in a glass on the kitchen counter, where it set for about 10min before I realized the temp it called for. As I remember it, I had a knee-jerk reaction and placed it in the freezer, probably for no longer than 10-12min. It probably went in at about 80-85 degrees and in that amount of time in the freezer likely only dropped by 15 degrees at most. So in reality it probably got pitched around 65-70F degrees.
 
LOL, same thing happened to me with my wort chiller on first use, my fitting came off too. Beer turned out fine. I test all new equipment now before official use.

I wouldn't worry about the yeast too much, I slap yeast in fridge/freezer unprotected all the time at work and they work fine, it will just be a tad sluggish.

As far as pitching the yeast at too high of a temp, you could get some off byproducts, but (most) yeast naturally live at 30-37C so that is not going to harm the yeast. I'm sure your wort cooled sufficiently before hard core ferm kicked in.

Don't worry about it.
 
It'll make beer. Probably good beer. And you've learned and are going to get better at it.

I could list 10 mistakes I made on my first batch. It turned out okay and my next batches were much better.
 
I brew with tap water, my dad uses hot wort to sanitize his bucket, I've pitched yeast hot and dry. Best ideas? Nope. Does it work? Hell yeah.
 
It's fine.
In the meantime read this. It really helped me to RDWHAHB when I made a ton of mistakes on my first brew (which turned out awesome)

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

That link is a great resource and fun read, thanks for posting. You would think with about 30 batches under my belt (albeit in the small Mr. Beer Kit) that I would be a little less paranoid. Different brewing process, but similar principles. The secret ingridient is patience and confidence, lol.
 
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