3 mistake brew day

Not looking for any reassurance, really. Just venting. I made 3 mistakes today that I am frustrated about because two of them came from being in a hurry.

First, when I had the wort chiller going one of the clamps came loose and I got hose water in the wort. Oh well....not much I can do about that one.

Second, because of a mixture of rushing, impatience, and stupidity I misread my thermometer and pitched yeast at 78 degrees instead of the 68 that I was "waiting" for.

Third, already frustrated I sealed everything up and realized I didn't take a hydro reading.

This was my first "bad" brew day. Here's to hoping that it turns out alright.

Okay...I feel better now.

no worries, that wort will most likely be under 70 by the time the yeast get going, and hydrometer readings are overrated, if you still wanna do one just sanitize a turkey baster and suck out a sample.

i sure it well, as some have said it well be said again rdwhahb, so thats out the way. Im not offering any reassurances, i do understand assesing oneself skill levels (will i ever be the next wort monger, deathbrewer or revy to name a few
). Or can i make good beer people and i want to drink. (attainable goal)

You proably know these things already; the clamp thing some times sh*t happens, the yeast pitch temp i truly don't think picthing at 78 is that bad of a sin ( i have done way higher still made beer not the greatest but pratice counts. no hydro reading, if it was extract again i dont think its a big deal let it fermet a little longer then take a couple days of readings if it stays the same your done

Hell my first attempt i didn't control boil overs , i didn't stir, i didn't control fermentation temps and i didn't strain the trub out. i think i should have called it dry hopped lambic, grass beer. From that my friends wont drink it to yeah you got any of that home brew lay around.

good luck peace out bennyd

Thanks for taking the time to read this, guys. I think the biggest sin of all that was committed was being in a hurry. I'm sure it'll still be beer and I'll still drink it.........that's what counts.

Pitching at 78 degrees isn't going to hurt anything. That's just the perfectionist side of you looking for reasons to punish yourself. RDWHAHB.

So a hose popped off and some water got into the wort? It probably wasn't even enough to have an effect on the gravity. RDWHAHB.

It's ok to take the lid off of your fermentation vessel. Get a turkey baster or a wine thief and you can take samples whenever you want. It won't hurt anything. RDWHAHB.

Don't punish yourself. We all make mistakes but beer making is very forgiving.

Yep- Its easy to get mad at yourself for doing stupid things and thinking that you ruined everything. Of all of the homebrew accidents that I have had, none of them have ever resulted in beer not getting made.

The warmer temp will not hurt the yeast; in fact, it might help wake them up quicker. The hose water should be fine. Beer has been made for thousands of years before starsan was invented. I'm starting to wonder why I ever take a hydrometer reading. It isn't like knowing what the starting gravity of my beer was makes it taste any better.

I'm not the op, but thanks for all the reassurances anyways...I hopped on here this morning thinking "f&@k, I should have just waited the extra 20 minutes last night to get my wort down to 70f. I pitched at 77 because it was midnight and I needed to go to sleep. Time to rdwgtw. (relax, don't worry, go to work)

Just remember things could always be worse...after a batch cooled turned by back and turned around to see the dog with its head in the pot...I just dumped the batch. Ahhhh I do enjoy this hobby.

I find that a big meal about halfway through brewing reduces the number of errors.

I aspire for the brewday that only has 3 errors.

I'm sure everything will be fine. If it makes you feel any better, I myself made two of those same mistakes on my brewday yesterday. I didn't take a hydro reading (but since it's extract I got Beersmith to help me out anyway) and I pitched at 90 degrees by accident. Although, I did add some cool top off water and mixed it vigorously so I'm sure that temp dropped significantly. I'm sure both our beers will be just fine!

I made a pretty big error this weekend with my beer.

First time I've ever needed a blow off tube - stuff was starting to come out of the airlock. I had a new-ish (had been sitting on my table for a few weeks) half inch I.D piece of hose that I stuck top of my air lock, and put the other end in a mason jar filled with water.

Later that day, I checked on it, and I saw krausen surging into the tube, and falling out of the tube back into the fermenter at almost the same rate between huge 'burps' in the water.

It never occurred to me to sanitize the hose. Ooops.

You know what I did?

Forgot about it, and had a home brew.

Your beer is going to be great!

bennyd said:

First, when I had the wort chiller going one of the clamps came loose and I got hose water in the wort. Oh well....not much I can do about that one.

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Man I've done that! Hose water gushed into my kettle for a good minute and a half before I could get it turned off. Even on days when nothing goes right I'd rather spend the day brewing with everything going wrong than go to work!!

Your good it could've been worse you could've gotten drunk on brew day and then forgot to pitch the yeast for like 2 days...shaking the fermentor posting here asking what i might've done wrong ....then finally realizing that the bottle of American Ale yeast was actually intended for THAT brew...sigh...good times and the beer really tasted good

Haha.....thanks for the replies and sharing your various experiences. I'm surprised that no one pointed us to the "mistakes you've made and your beer turned out okay" thread. But that wasn't the point of me posting this. Strictly just venting and I'm glad I did because it sounded like some other people have had the same experiences.

After sleeping on it last night and dragging through a Monday.....I feel better. Especially since the sweet raspberry wheat is bubbling away at 70-72degrees. A little higher than I wanted, but it could be worse.

Have a good week everyone.