First brew; several newbie mistakes

(This is my first post here, though I've been lurking for a while. Please be gentle. )

Yesterday was my first brew. It was rough, and several things went wrong. Here's a list:

• I suspect I didn't wash the wort chiller well enough.
• I of course waited till the last minute to measure the hops, and I couldn't find my trusty scale... so I had to use some *ahem* calculated guesswork.
• I used an electric stove to boil the 5 gallons, which never quite got a good rolling boil and never seemed to reach a hot break.
• The inlet hose on the wort chiller was leaking. This drizzled in unsanitized tap water (which probably had touched the unclean inside of the chiller) into the wort for a good 10 minutes before I noticed.
• Aforementioned leak ran over nasty solder I describe below.
• My hands went in the wort not once but TWICE after it cooled down.
• I came up ~2 gallons short and forgot to top off to 5 gallons. (D'oh!)

Not really worrying because making mistakes is part of learning. I just thought it'd be amusing to list all of these mistakes I made in one afternoon, and maybe some others will feel more comforted knowing there's bigger klutzes out here.

I pitched the yeast, and this morning was awakened by a whistling airlock. A very nice krausen has formed, and fermentation seems to be going nicely.


A few questions:

First thing is, my wort chiller. The instructions said to wash it with a mild detergent to remove the manufacturing deposits, so I soaked it in hot PBW for maybe 5 minutes. Besides my suspicion I didn't soak it nearly long enough, I noticed that the inlet and outlet were soldered together, and that where the PBW touched the solder started to wear off and turn green. I can't say definitely it wasn't already like that, this may just be my mind playing tricks on me. To be safe, I boiled that part in water for a bit and rinsed it off well before using. Am I going to be safe, or will the beer be dangerously tainted?

Also, I noticed a few moments after I put the wort chiller in, the part that touched the wort turned very bright copper; the rest of the chiller was dirty looking in comparison. Not only that, but the wort turned darker. Is this normal, or is my suspicion above right--that I didn't soak it long enough in the PBW?

Was not topping off to 5 gallons a fatal error, or is my brew salvageable? If so, how?

Anyway, thanks for letting me babble!

Woohoo, someone who made more mistakes than me!! hehehe
after reading alot of posts last few hours, I was kinda getting depressed.
well, these are mistakes I made. *realized them after reading posts here.*

1)steeped my grains in too high of temp. :cross:
2)didn't use sterile or alcohol for my air lock.
3)possibly over sanitized by using bleach and 1step. *maybe residue causing off flavor*
4)Did not take very good note of ingredients I have used and process I used.

LOL, if it makes you feel any better, I have 3 bad batchs.

This batch is going to be heavier than expected but you can still dilute it if you wish. Wait until you're fully fermented out, boil some topoff water for 30 minutes to drive off the dissolved oxygen and sanitize it, cover it, let it cool, then add it to the primary (you can also do this at bottling time if you want). What kind of beer was it supposed to be? Maybe it will be fine in its more concentrated state.

It's supposed to be a hefeweizen. I used WLP300 with 7lbs of 60/40 wheat/barley liquid extract. It smells and looks just like Flying Dog's In-Heat Wheat. I think I was mainly wondering if the concentrated wort would pose a problem for fermentation. (Sounds like it'll be fine.) I might give it a taste in a week, and dilute it depending on that.

My only real concern is regarding the wort chiller turning the wort darker, and the inlet leak. I don't want to get solder poisoning!

barniclebob12 said:

Woohoo, someone who made more mistakes than me!! hehehe
after reading alot of posts last few hours, I was kinda getting depressed.

Click to expand...

Glad I could help.

One more mistake I made: I forgot to take the OG.

Hillbillie PHiL said:

My only real concern is regarding the wort chiller turning the wort darker, and the inlet leak. I don't want to get solder poisoning!

Click to expand...

I assume this is a commercial chiller, not a home made one? If so, I SERIOUSLY doubt they'd use a lead based solder (don't even think that would be legal), so I'm sure you're fine.

That is not going to taste like your normal, run of the mill 5% ABV hefeweizen if you don't dilute it... It will be more like a super strong, 7%+ belgian wit... I would recommend diluting it.

I made a similar mistake one time when I was a newb (little over a year ago) and I ended up brewing up a 4g batch with 5g of ingredients - it was also a belgian wheat-beer that was supposed to come in around 5% ABV. Well, it was more as I explained above... a stronger belgian dubble or something. It was OK, but not what it was meant to be when brewed and not near as easy to drink as a normal hefe. Since you have 5g of ingredients in 3g, I assume yours will be even more offbase.

I'd do as Bobby_M said and top it off with steralized tap water once its fermented out. Other than that, I think you'll be fine with the mistakes you made... As long as you learn for next time, it's all good!

Good luck!

If it makes you feel better on my first time I dropped the carboy that was full of sanitizer in the sink and it blew it right out of the counter. Then I forgot to pitch the yeast for about 3 hours because I was worried about how to break the news to the SWMBO about the sink. After that I got up the next morning and went and bought a $5.00 carboy handle and a $500.00 new sink.:cross:


My wort chiller also turned a bright copper the 1st time I used it and it has been fine ever since.

Okay guys, thanks for the responses. I feel a little better about this batch. I'll take a gravity reading when the fermentation's through, and top off accordingly.

One question: is it supposed to SMELL this much? It's not a bad smell, like I said it's almost identical to an In-Heat Wheat, but the smell has saturated the room the carboy is in. Is that a sign of infection? The krausen has almost tripled since the picture I posted earlier.... if I had 5 gallons in the carboy, a blowoff hose would've definitely been required.

Sorry to hear about the sink, Hopper. I bet that batch turned out to be your most expensive yet. I'm sure the SWMBO didn't like it too much though.

And Scimmia, yeah it's a commercial chiller. I guess I was worrying too much; I'll relax and have a brew (unfortunately not a homebrew).