So....

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alebelly788

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I was chilling my wort with my wort chiller connected to a hose line outside. Then the next thing I know is it had somehow broke and probably about a gallon of hose water was introduced into the wort. I pitched the yeast anyway things it wont make much of a difference. But now my question is this: Should I just keep it or toss it? Is there anything bad about using the hose water? Any nasty's I should be worried about? I remember as a kid I use to drink out of the hose without any trouble. Thoughts?
 
At best you will have some tasty diluted beer (which you could easily fix by adding some DME). At worst, you could have an infected diluted beer. Luckily, it won't harm your health, just your pride. Ferment it out and hope for the best. If your chiller was reasonably clean and you had been running water through it before the break happened, there is a good chance that no infection occurred. Next time this happens, just bring it back to a boil real quick to eliminate any unwanted microbes and add DME if you want, and re-chill carefully before you pitch the yeast.
 
Keep it and hope for the best. Same thing happened to me with a California Common. Not sure how much water I got into the wort, but it turned out fine. Just lost a few gravity points.
 
You'll get watered down beer and there *could* be an infection, but you should be fine. Had this happen a few times when I first started brewing (used non heat safe tubing to join 2 25' ic chillers) and it was fine.
 
I had hose water leak into my wort & it ended up ok. I even had a wretched cheese smell coming from what turned out to be the carboy cap. I almost tossed it, but decided to bottle & see what happened. It was fine, no issues or off flavors whatsoever.
 
I would keep it and see what happens. If you toss it you could be tossing the best brew you ever made out. Olde hose pipe ale. Just my .02
 
True. I would just rather not get super sick from it haha. I'd say I was at about 5 gallons of wort and added maybe an additional 2 gallons. My chiller was running water right from the wall, I made myself and never really thought to clean out the inside. Hopefully turns out ok. What are some signs of infection that I can look for; mold?
 
Too late now, but if you had some DME/LME laying around, you could add till you get the gravity you're looking for, keep the hops in and give a quick boil to kill off whatever may be there. Obviously would throw off the recipe but you'd know there's no critters and wouldn't end up bubbly water. For now though it can't hurt to keep it and hope for the best. I'm sure you're fine...just very diluted.
 
As I understand it, there is no pathogen that can survive in an alcohol environment AND make you sick. The pathogens that CAN live in beer, will affect taste but not safety.
 
Out of curiosity, do you know what your OG is? If you had a weaker beer to begin with, then after adding 2 gallons of water you may have a very weak beer that is more vulnerable to infection. I would strongly recommend adding DME to compensate if this is the case.

Infection signs will most likely be noticeable after bottling due to 'gushers' or a really bad off flavor. If it tastes truly terrible you will dump it, infection or not.
 
Mold is pretty easy to recognize. I've also seen infections that look a little like a spider web on the surface.

Search for images of yeast rafts so you don't worry about them, because you will more than likely see some.
 
Its the oatmeal/wheat stout out of Homebrews Companion. The OG is supposed to be around 1.053-1.060. When I took my reading prior to the additional water it was around .051-.053, can't remember exactly what it was. What type of DME should I add? Also, fermentation has already started, its going pretty stong at the moment.
 
Good to hear that it was a normal strength beer. According to my calculations, if you added 2 gallons of water, your gravity would have become 1.037. I would add between 2 and 3 pounds of DME. Since it is a stout, you could use whatever kind you wanted I think.
 
Ick. You hose must have tasted better than the one I drank from because mine tasked like a vinyl air mattress. I imagine stuff crawls up the outdoor hose when not in use and running the hose for a few minutes probably wouldn't sterilize it sufficiently.

Having said that, they brewed in open kegs 10000 years ago using wild yeast found on stuff like unwashed tools.

I'm kinda curious to see what happens. I won't toss it until you had some clue. I'd at least bulk age it in the primary for a few months and see if it tries to escape. But you might be fine. If it goes south, infection will be obvious. Just google the pictures (and the smell is horrible I hear).
 
So I racked it the other day and got a FG of 1.010 when it was supposed to me inbetween 1.016 and 1.020.....that's a pretty significant difference and it's pretty damn watery. Is this worth keeping or should I just toss it. Also I should note that I said screw and threw in some oak chips soaking in scotch the day after racking. I figured if it's going to be another watery beer oh well, I'll just give it a shot.
 
... it's pretty damn watery. Is this worth keeping or should I just toss it.

I just discovered maltoDextrin for improving watery beers. Haven't used it yet but you can add at bottling. Someone else with more experience please chime in, but if the ABV is ok, can buddy add maltodextrin to add more mouthfeel?
 
So I racked it the other day and got a FG of 1.010 when it was supposed to me inbetween 1.016 and 1.020.....that's a pretty significant difference and it's pretty damn watery. Is this worth keeping or should I just toss it. Also I should note that I said screw and threw in some oak chips soaking in scotch the day after racking. I figured if it's going to be another watery beer oh well, I'll just give it a shot.

Could still add the extract...just boil it, cool it a bit, then toss it in.
 
I would throw it back on to boil for at least 20-40 minutes no experience here just common sense. it might throw off your hop flavor though.
 
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