I had a couple of downers kill what otherwise was going to be a great brewing experience. Tell me what you think...
With some tax refund money I purchased a SQ-14 Burner and a 10 gal Polarware Pot and went about brewing my first full boil. That all went great, but in my haste of wanting to brew on my day off, I didn't do a yeast starter for a tube of White Labs yeast. No big deal I know, except this tube ended up being bad. First time not doing a starter, and it just so happens it's the first bad tube I've gotten, my bad luck.
Luckily, Midwest had sent me an extra pack of Munton's dry, so after giving it almost 24hrs without one single bubble, I re-hydrated the Munton's and went about pouring her in. This is where I screwed up again.
In trying to get the stopper out, I drove it almost down into the beer, not a big deal I know, but annoying, now I was going to have to carefully fish it out with a screw driver that I conveniently forgot to sterilize. I had done this before wthout touching the bottle with the screwdriver with no problem, but this time it slipped and the plug fell into the beer with a bit of greasy screwdriver dirt in the middle hole.
I cussed, sterilized a new plug, and put her in. This morning the batch is fired up and going great.
Here's the ultimate question. Upon telling my brother, who is a more meticulous and experienced brewer than myself, this story, he said that I might as well throw the batch out. That seems a little drastic to me. I have had some other screwups in my short amateur career, and with upwards of 20 batches and two years under my beer belly, have yet to have an infected batch, but granted, this batch does seem like a batch of firsts thus far. The boil went so good, and the beer was no doubt going to be good until all this happened. So what now?
Don't know why it would matter, but the batch is a Midwest Supplies recipe for 5gal. Irish Red Ale brewed to spec. (1lb grain steeped to 155deg, 6lbs liq malt, 1oz hops 60 min, 1oz hops 2 min) chilled in 15min (with my also new stainless wort chiller thank you very much)1.040grav, fermenting at about 65-67deg in a 6.5 gal car boy.
Would you throw it out, or keep-a-fermentin and hope for the best?
With some tax refund money I purchased a SQ-14 Burner and a 10 gal Polarware Pot and went about brewing my first full boil. That all went great, but in my haste of wanting to brew on my day off, I didn't do a yeast starter for a tube of White Labs yeast. No big deal I know, except this tube ended up being bad. First time not doing a starter, and it just so happens it's the first bad tube I've gotten, my bad luck.
Luckily, Midwest had sent me an extra pack of Munton's dry, so after giving it almost 24hrs without one single bubble, I re-hydrated the Munton's and went about pouring her in. This is where I screwed up again.
In trying to get the stopper out, I drove it almost down into the beer, not a big deal I know, but annoying, now I was going to have to carefully fish it out with a screw driver that I conveniently forgot to sterilize. I had done this before wthout touching the bottle with the screwdriver with no problem, but this time it slipped and the plug fell into the beer with a bit of greasy screwdriver dirt in the middle hole.
I cussed, sterilized a new plug, and put her in. This morning the batch is fired up and going great.
Here's the ultimate question. Upon telling my brother, who is a more meticulous and experienced brewer than myself, this story, he said that I might as well throw the batch out. That seems a little drastic to me. I have had some other screwups in my short amateur career, and with upwards of 20 batches and two years under my beer belly, have yet to have an infected batch, but granted, this batch does seem like a batch of firsts thus far. The boil went so good, and the beer was no doubt going to be good until all this happened. So what now?
Don't know why it would matter, but the batch is a Midwest Supplies recipe for 5gal. Irish Red Ale brewed to spec. (1lb grain steeped to 155deg, 6lbs liq malt, 1oz hops 60 min, 1oz hops 2 min) chilled in 15min (with my also new stainless wort chiller thank you very much)1.040grav, fermenting at about 65-67deg in a 6.5 gal car boy.
Would you throw it out, or keep-a-fermentin and hope for the best?