Made many mistakes. Is my brew still okay?

Hi all,

I brewed my third batch of beer today. It was a porter from midwest brewing. I thought it would take about 3 hours to brew, as my last 2 took that long. For some reason, the water was taking much slower to boil (maybe because I was using an electric stove vs gas stove?). Anyway, I was crunched for time as I had to be somewhere. Because of this time constraint, I made many brewing errors.

First error = By the time the water started boiling, I only had about an hour and fifteen minutes before I had to leave. I added my first hop addition slightly before the water started boiling. Then, I did a 30 minute boil.

Second error = The wort wasn't cooling fast enough by me adding water and ice (haven't invested in a wort chiller yet). About a minute before I had to leave, I pitched the yeast at 90 degrees.

Third error = I aerated the wort before as well as slightly after I pitched the yeast (I guess this might not be an error, as it obviously hadn't started fermenting yet).

I'm not usually a worrier, but I did just about everything wrong that I could have done wrong. On top of that, my sanitation wasn't as top notch as it could have been.

I'm going to wait the 2 weeks to try it and potentially keg it, but do you think my beer is ruined? Is there any way I can salvage it? I added some ground coffee. Can I add some vanilla extract to balance any potential off-flavors?

Thanks for the help!

Patients is necessary in this hobby, liquor stores are for those who cant wait (not trying to be harsh)...as for adding hops to early, you will increase your bitterness...as for a 30 minute boil, its important to do at least a 60 minute boil to stabilize the flavors, additionally not allowing a full boil and a rapid cool down will most likely result in DMS (Dimethyl Sulfides) or a rancid flavor, like cabbage in your beer.

In the end try it before you dump it...and take your time and make amazing beer!

RDWHAHB. It won't be as bad as you think. But ^ is right. More time = better beer.

I betcha it'll be just fine. Probably a little less hoppy due to the short boil, not the end of the world for a porter though. 90 degrees isn't hot enough to kill the yeast, as long as you maintain good fermentation temperatures you should be just fine. RDWHAHB!

Read this thread and RDWHAHB:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/what-some-mistakes-you-made-where-your-beer-still-turned-out-great-96780/

Also, are you seriously talking about counteracting possible "off-flavors" on the same day that you brewed??? Chill, don't get crazy with it, let it be and see what comes of it.

I know patience is key. I was just anxious to brew because my package came today. I thought I would have more time, but I had to go to a concert tonight. =(

should be fine. not the best brew you've done (unless it's the first), but you'll enjoy it

Thanks!

Generally, I like to devote a whole day to brewing. I do mini-mash and a full boil, though

Just treat this batch as if you did nothing wrong. Yeasties don't hold grudges, they'll still do their thing when conditions aren't perfect and you'll end up at the very least with quaffable beer. RDWHAHB and get that next batch started when you know you've got time.

Also, not to be rude, but general forum etiquette is to not spam the exact same post in multiple places.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/made-many-mistakes-my-brew-still-okay-249239/#post2977285

musicman1789 said:

I'm going to wait the 2 weeks to try it and potentially keg it, but do you think my beer is ruined? Is there any way I can salvage it? I added some ground coffee. Can I add some vanilla extract to balance any potential off-flavors?

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I don't understand why you added ground coffee in an attempt to salvage your beer.

Originally Posted by smyrnaquince
I don't understand why you added ground coffee in an attempt to salvage your beer.

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I think he was trying to add more flavor and bitterness to cover up any off flavors.

I'm pretty sure it will be fine, if you have any doubts you can send it to me

smyrnaquince said:

I don't understand why you added ground coffee in an attempt to salvage your beer.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't know why I put that there. I planned to add coffee from the start.

RDWHAHB, just get your temps down as quickly as you can.

I recently pitched some US-05 at 90 degrees after a disaster brewday and had trouble getting it below 70 for the rest of fermentation. I took a gravity reading--it was almost finished--and drank it. It was just a little bit hot, but tasted fantastic. You'd be surprised what you can get away with if you have a little patience.

Schedule your next brew day for when you have a lot of time, so that no matter what goes wrong you can fix it and still have time to RDWHAHB.

In case anyone cares, my brew turned out pretty great.. It's not award winning, but it's my favorite so far (out of three, first one I kegged).. I had even more issues.. I thought a freezer I got off of craigslist was a fridge (advertised as such), so I completely froze my full keg.. Now, it tastes pretty great though.. Could use a little more carbonation.. It has a pretty strong coffee taste, which will probably mellow out a little..

The RDWHAHB philosophy is one I was not aware of until I joined this site.. I will always stick to it.. Just had another brew day today and made 0 mistakes (pitched yeast at 90 degrees again because impatient, but didn't affect last brew, so hope it won't affect this)..

THANKS!

While you can sometimes get away with pitching at 90*, I'd avoid doing so in the future. The closer you pitch to your fermentation temperature (and ideally a few degrees below that) the better your beer will be.

Glad it turned out ok though!