Started my first brew tonight; read for a good laugh!!

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Lazy8s

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So right now my 5gal fermenter with what may one day be hefeweisen is sitting in my tub with cool water and even I am laughing. I read TJoHB and thought I knew it all. I got 2gal of water boiling in my 28qt pot and put 3 gal of cool tap water straight from the tap into the fermenter.

Next I boiled with the 1oz tettenger hops for an hour as I stirred every 15min or so. After about 45min I notice some dark colored stuff swirling around; yep there is crusty stuff on the bottom on the pot. Yay burned LME! I pushed through stirring more often.

Then I poured the hot wort (about 165degrees) into the fermenter and put it outside. After all it IS 60 out there! Then I came in to check the forums and see why my temps were still about 120. I realized I never realized a chilling method wasn't exactly optional...so I ran inside, grabbed my half full ice container and dumped it into my fermenter. I had solved the problem! Then it hit me that I put my hand in that stuff all the time...so I read a little more and by the time the ice had melted I realized I am not as sharp as I thought.

So now, out of ice, my fermeter is sitting in a tub of cold tap water with a bag (this time sanitized) of cold packs inside. I am now drinking cold beer from the store, doing the dishes, getting a good laugh. Hopefully i didn't just make 5gal of horse urine, but if I did at least from now on I'll be drinking my home brewed horse urine. :-D
 
You didn't say when you added the LME. Hopefully you will find differently but ime scorched lme has come through in the final beer. Nasty.

For the future you definitely want to remove the pot from the burner when you are adding the lme and stir until it is dissolved into the water before reflaming. This will prevent scorching.

Also, for chilling, try chilling the boil pot in an ice bath until under 100 and then adding the cooled wort to the top up water in the fermenter. The colder the top up water the better. This way, once you pour in the wort the beer is already at yeast pitching temp.
 
Oh man, thats funny yet $hitty at the same time.

The cool thing is is that you're able to laugh at yourself.

Try it again, and at least this time you know what you did wrong.
 
You'll make beer, and it will be gone before you know it. Start planning the next one.
 
I got the water up to about 165 then I added the LME directly into the pot. X-( Now I just need to figure out what gets it off an aluminum pot. :-/ I tried soaking it in saniclean for about 10min and nothing. I may have to use steel wool and try not to scratch it too badly. Fortunately anything that goes into the pot gets boiled so some light abrasions shouldn't render it unusable. Unfortunately I don't think I can afford an immersion cooler right now but that's ok. I liked the idea I read where a forum member boiled water then put it into a sanitized container and froze it. The other option is freezing a gallon milk jug of water and sanitizing it before I put it into the wort.

The scary part is I cook a LOT, and not just mac and cheese but nice food like veal picatta and cedar salmon. I ALWAYS smell when a sauce tarts to scorch but with this I couldn't tell a difference honestly; it smelled the same. I am trying to relax and hopefully it will turn out well. Do you guys really think I need to start over? :-(
 
It may or may not turn out well. I would worry about an infection from the ice dumped directly in, and yes scortched extract taste terrible from what I have heard.

If you're in this hobby for the long run...no biggy just see how this turns out and learn from it.
 
Dont give up on your beer yet. See the process through you might surprise yourself.

+1

Hey, I've done some weird stuff as well.

I remember back to my first few brews. Like for instance, I boiled the specialty grains lol. Shoot, my first 2 or 3 extract brews back in the day were topped off with about 3.5 gallons of tap water straight out of the spray gun on my sink. Yeast is a powerful organism and if you have an active fermentation (which Hefe strains do pretty well) in the next day or so, you should be ok in the infection department. I'd say let it sit in your primary for three weeks and then bottle.

Cheers,
J
 
I just use regular old tap water for wine and beer making. I don't boil it first. I've made enough wine and know enough experienced people that have been doing it for years that just use regular tap water that it seems like a non-issue. My sanitation paranoia kicks in with equipment that I have used before (which DOES include the brita filter/jug) and might be gummed up with moldy old sugar or something. I meticulously take everything apart when I'm done and clean / sanitize properly, and then sanitize again before I use it next time. But water? Can't be bothered. Then again, I don't stick my hand in it :p

Give your beer some time! All things considered it might just be tasty anyway. :mug:

Edit: This is a great read for when you think you've screwed up:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/wh...where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/
 
I'll bet it tastes great!!! There is something to be said for beginners luck. I did my first batch with what I thought was a sanitizer but actually wasn't (the least of my mistakes) and it still turned out to be a good beer.
 
I scorched the LME my first time as well. It was still beer at the end. Turned out to be a smokey pale ale. I wouldn't say it was horrible but I have since made beer 10 times better. It will make sure you never burn extract again though!
 
Your first batch is ALWAYS good. It's just a law of nature. I'm reasonably confident that my left pinky is still in one of the bottles from my first batch. . . and it was STILL good.
 
I received a pot in a bunch of equipment I got off of CL that was scorched.
I boiled some water and added a couple of scoops of OxiClean, and the next morning it came out fairly easy.
 
If you smell and taste the tap water and both seem ok (no bad flavors or smells) then you can brew with it. I wouldnt be too worried just dont make it habit to stick your hands in the stuff you dump in :) lol
 
Status update: it's about 13hrs later and I'm getting about 3 bubbles per SECOND from the one way valve! Next time I'm going to primary this stuff in my glass carboy to watch! I'm just going to leave it and hopefully it turns out well.

I started with an activator pack and smacked it about 20hrs before pitching. It was from November so by the time I pitched it I had actually placed the pouch in a ziplock bag in case it exploded. I had to cut it open because the bag was too swolen to get it to tear, I had no idea how much byproducts the yeast puts off!! This hobby is a whole lot more fun than I imagined!
 
Status update: it's about 13hrs later and I'm getting about 3 bubbles per SECOND from the one way valve! Next time I'm going to primary this stuff in my glass carboy to watch! I'm just going to leave it and hopefully it turns out well.

I started with an activator pack and smacked it about 20hrs before pitching. It was from November so by the time I pitched it I had actually placed the pouch in a ziplock bag in case it exploded. I had to cut it open because the bag was too swolen to get it to tear, I had no idea how much byproducts the yeast puts off!! This hobby is a whole lot more fun than I imagined!

There you go.....you've begun brewing already! While it ferments do some more reading, troll around the forums a little. You will learn loads of info and soon will be answering peoples questions instead of asking them :rockin:
 
As with most things just give it some time. It may turn out great, and if not then you know what not to do next time.
Welcome to the addiction ... uh, I mean hobby!
 
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