help, did I ruin it?

Ok, i'm new to brewing. Here is my question. I'm brewing a 5 gal kit. I brewed it the other day, and have been watching the airlock on top on the bucket. It bubbled slowly for about 18 hours, then stopped. I expected to see bubbles for at least a couple days.

Here are a few concerns I have
1. Durring the boil, it never really got to a good, rolling boil. I think I tried to boil too much water, and I was unable to bring it to a good boil.
2. When I cooled it down, the instructions that came with the kit said to cool it down under 80, which is what I did, but everything I read online says to bring the temp down closer to 70

I know the bucket is sealed tight, so air isnt escaping anywhere. Am I worrying about nothing? Did I kill some of the yeast, if so should I pitch more? Is there a good way to tell, other then doing a reading.

Help

Yes, ruined.........................




Just kidding.

You might have some esters from the high pitching temp, but giving it more time in the fermenter can clean up much of this.

Thanks, so I shouldnt worry about pitching more yeast? Just leave it alone and let it do its thing?

Ideally you want to pitch the yeast at 70 or less but at 80, it's not the end of the world Hopefully you were able to bring the temperature down after that to a better range and the beer fermented closer to the mid 60's, if not, then you may have developed some unwanted off flavors. As mentioned, if that's the case, keep the beer on the yeast for an additional week or two so the yeast can clean up some of those flavors.

As for the bubbling, when fermentation is active a lot of gasses are produced and the airlock works as a valve to release those gasses but as fermentation slows and the gas production eases, air lock activity will slow down and eventually stop even though fermentation is still occurring. The only true way to determine if fermentation is complete is by taking a gravity reading. If you get the same reading twice over a period of 3 days then you know the beer is done.

Just let it do its thing. Check the gravity in 2 to 3 weeks. I say let this sit for a total of 4 weeks (more if you want). This will give the yeast time to finish and then clean up after themselves. In the mean time, buy another kit and brew again. Practice makes perfect.

Yep. Wait a week, then check it with sanitized hands, sanitized turkey baster, etc. You should notice krausen, stuff on the side of the bucket, and your gravity should have drastically decreased.

It's fine. Under 100 and your not likely to kill the yeast. You probably do have a slight air leak. Buckets do this quite often and there is no way to fix or any need to. The air (or should I say co2) leak wont hurt a thing.

yes it is ruined, for safety reasons leave it in your fermenter for a couple of weeks, bottle it IMMEDIATELY and ship it to me for proper disposal. I've been licensed to take care of botch beer like this and have years of experience. Don't worry I'll take care of your little problem