First day brewing : disaster

Hi,
I brewed for the first time today. Having read this board for the past six months and having read Papazian's book 3-4 times (malt extract part); I thought I was finally ready... But beware; a lot of things went wrong. Somehow, trying to foresee problems didn't help me a lot.

The first thing that went wrong was the damn Oxy-San (sanitizer). That damn thing can't be dissolve even in boiling water. I've tried with both boiling water and tepid water (as the guy from my LHBS told me) and nothing worked, even after 30 minutes of vigorous shaking. There was still powder in the bottom of my fermenter. There was nothing to do to dissolve it.

As the color of the water had changed, I've thought that some powder was dissolved in it, and that maybe the instructions given to me by the LHBS were wrong and that I put too much powder which saturated the solution. So I’ve thought that it would do as a sanitizer. So I immersed my things in it before using them. I immersed them for about 1:00:00 - 1:30:00 while I was boiling my wort. I'm not sure everything was properly sanitized, as the powder was not all dissolved... But I do think there was some sanitizing action going on.

Solution to this problem for future brewing day: I just ordered Star-san online. I've realized at what point this little product could really simplify my life while sanitizing (which I knew before, while reading these boards about star-san, but I thought Oxy-San would do the same job.) I’ll never use again Oxy-san.

Now, the boiling of the wort went fine. I've nearly had a boil over, but I've been lucky enough to prevent it and I only had to clean a little part of my stovetop. Then, I succeeded in chilling my pot in less than 20 minutes in a cold bath. Everything was fine until then.

But then I transferred my wort to the fermenter... without straining it. I realized this after topping it with water to 2.5 gallons (which was my desired volume).

So I began to use my strainer directly into the fermenter... And my strainer, in all my nervosity, touched a lot of surrounding objects like a plastic bag who happened to be there. A plastic bag which wasn’t sanitized... Then, I had the idea to retransfer the wort to the pot, and then retransfer from the pot to the fermenter in order to strain effectively. So I transferred from the fermenter to the pot, rinsed the strainer and the fermenter with boiling water, and retransferred from the pot to the fermenter while straining.

Problems then arose : some wort, while transferring, touched my hand before going down into the fermenter while some just didn't went through the strainer (I had a lot of problem to control my boiling pot containing 2.5 gallons of wort in one hand while controlling the strainer in the other). Not a lot though. Just a little bit. The majority of the wort went inside the fermenter by the strainer.

Then, I realized I lost some of the wort with all these transfers. So I added water in it, like 500 ml. In doing so, however, the bottle which contained the water slipped out of my hand and fell into the wort. I picked it up very quickly, it touched my wort for maybe 1 or 2 seconds, but still, it was not sanitized. It fell right on the top, not on the side, so I managed to pick it without touching the wort with my hands. Which wouldn't have change anything anyway, as nearly everything touched the wort either directly or indirectly.

All in all, I still managed to score the right SG (1.055) which approximately the right SG for this recipe.

It was a huge mess everywhere in the apartment. The stovetop, the floors, walls, there was some even on the toilet, I’ve ruined my girlfriend’s carpet by spoiling some wort on it, I burned myself on my hands.

I didn’t throw the wort away. I still pitched the yeast. I’ve seen this board enough to know it might still turn well, although I would be very surprised if that turns out to be the case. If I see some over-developed nasties in it someday, then it might go down the drain.

It was an amazing experience, which will be way more interesting when I’ll have my star-san...!

I bet it'll be fine. The goal of sanitation is not to eliminate 100% of bacteria from coming in contact with the wort, it's simply to tip the odds in your favor. As long as the yeast can out-compete the bacteria that are present (and there will be some, I would imagine it's impossible to not have some in your wort) the beer will be fine.

I had many similar "mistakes" brewing my first batch last month and I was surprised to learn that it's actually kind of hard to get an infection. I coulda sworn my first batch was done for when I dripped a buncha ice water from my unsanitized bathtub into the wort during the chilling, but alas, nothing bad ever happened.

Wow, what a day!

I got a chuckle thinking how many similar things I have done. My bet is that everything will turn out fine with your brew, but either way don't get discouraged.

Thanks, it gets my hope up.

Still, it's amazing how much mistake I did when I thought I was completely ready to do a perfect mistake-less first batch! I guess in some days, weeks or years, it will be a good laugh when I'll recall my first batch!

Anyone who says that nothing unsanitized ever touches their beer is kidding themselves. I have a few whoopsies every now and then and have not yet had an infection.

The good thing is that you are aware of this and your technique will improve as you brew more.

Don't worry.

All in all, sounds like a good day!
Just wait until it's starts fermenting... You'll forget all about the issues you had...

Don't worry, once you crack the top on that first homebrew it will all be worth it!

Well. I took a picture, about 14 hours after I pitched the yeast. It doesn't smell any bad, but the look of it nearly made me vomit. I'm sorry about the quality, but I wanted to have a low-light photography without flash, so, that the best I could do...


Is this an infection? Or is this a normal fermentation startup? Why is it so much concentrated on the sides :S?

Tough love time. Put the lid on and step away from the fermenter!
It is fine. when the yeast starts to work, it all churns like a washing machine until it is completed.
If you keep lifting the lid you will cause harm to your beer.

Think about it like this. If there were a problem- there's nothing you can do anyway, so just leave it alone and let it ferment in peace. If you keep F'ing with it you will cause a problem that doesn't yet exist.

Drink a beer and chill brotha, it is fine.

+1 Step away from the fermenter!!!

Absolutely nothing you can do now will help your beer, other than temperature control. Let the yeast do it's thing.

Patience is the hardest thing for the new brewer. We were all guilty of impatience at some point, but you'll learn.

I pushed a bung through my carboy and into the wort on my first beer. I initially bugged out and posted about it here, then I got the +1000 post members telling me that they've done it before and everything turned out fine. Beer is pretty hard to mess up, especially with new equipment.

RDWHAHB!!

In the end, it'll be beer. Your pic looks like the beginnings of a normal krausen. Just leave it alone and let it turn in to beer.

The story of your first brewday gave me a pretty good chuckle. Sounds like Murphy had you at the top of his list. The good thing about all that transferring back and forth to strain it is you probably aerated it pretty damn good.

RDWHAHB

This morning, I checked first to see if my MoFC's thermostat was reading the right temp, so I sanitized the thermometer, put it in the bucket to see the temperature, and then I decided to take the above picture.

Now, I won't touch it again, I promise! I won't lift the lid again except in a few days, when I'll take hydrometer readings.

a few days? Make it 2-3 weeks. really.

it's gonna be okay. relax. go plan your next batch.

You would be surprised at how hard it is to actually infect a batch. I've done just about everything you can to a beer short of spiting in it, and have yet to have a problem.

mkorpal said:

You would be surprised at how hard it is to actually infect a batch. I've done just about everything you can to a beer short of spiting in it, and have yet to have a problem.

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Yeah, but Murphy likes me a lot, so it's easy to think he may have played another of his trick on me. You know, if something can turn bad, it will turn bad.

I've seen the thread on the mistakes people did and the beer still turned well, and it helps me to stay calm. I hope everything turns as well as they did for those people!

Erythro73, I thought you said disaster.

You got your 1st day under your belt. It's like your first real fist fight or sex, there may be blood and you probably looked like a fool, but you've gone through the experience and it can only get easier

Congrats, the pic looks like yeast rafts and or krausen. Did you aerate well? My 1st looked similar, but it turned out pretty good.

Erythro73, I thought you said disaster.

You got your 1st day under your belt. It's like your first real fist fight or sex, there may be blood and you probably looked like a fool, but you've gone through the experience and it can only get easier

Congrats, the pic looks like yeast rafts and or krausen. Did you aerate well? My 1st looked similar, but it turned out pretty good.

Dude, chill out, you're making beer - not finding the cure for cancer.

Homebrewing disasters involve the ER, fire trucks, flood damage, divorces, or some combination thereof.

Hitting your SG and scuzzy-looking foam forming on the wort are signs of success.

The rest are "interesting experiences".

Did I mention having the hinge on your fermentation fridge break and knock the fermenter over? Good thing: A. it was a pail and B. the airlock was in tight.

WOW! glad my first day went better, Hope it turns out all right.

Well, guess who came back home after work and found... a bubbling airlock with a nice 1" diameter of kraeusen? (I didn't open the lid, I just looked through the plastic bucket)... which only give an idea of what is going on).

Nice work, congrats on the first batch.
I know it is hard but sometimes backing away is the best. When you first transferred into the fermentor without straining, you should have just stopped there instead of going through what you did. The trub will settle at the bottom.
It will get easier!

Spludge said:

When you first transferred into the fermentor without straining, you should have just stopped there instead of going through what you did. The trub will settle at the bottom.
It will get easier!

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The thought crossed my mind. But then I thought "If Papazian & Palmer wrote to strain the wort before fermenting, there's a reason behind it".

I remember being super anal with sanitation my couple of batches... If it makes you feel any better, I dropped a pair of pliers into my holiday porter's wort last year and fished it out with my unsanitised hand. No infection and it's probably my favourite brew I've done.

congratulations

I just did my 4th batch and I've:
accidentally boiled my steeping grains
Hot Side Aerated my wort
dripped water from chiller into wort
spilled hops/trub all over the side of my carboy for lack of funnel
used unsanitized pot to hold fill water
burst one hydrometer in sanitizing bucket
etc.

live and learn...
welcome to the joy

I remember my first few batches and the mistakes and errors I made... learn from them and think what you can do next time.

Even though we treat beer like a newborn child the truth is that a child is more corruptible than a new brew. You did fine and learned some good lessons. Your beer, when bottled and conditioned will taste fine, perhaps the best beer you EVER had cause you made it. So as posted above.. go ahead and plan your next batch and don't sweat what happened.

I see sanitation as a 2 edged sword...yup a bad batch can sure be ugly...and yup, folks used to brew in the most unsanitary conditions you could think of, so go with it.

I will tell you a bottling story though (my only one since I've only bottled or made one batch)....I'm bottling away, my son is passing the bottles for my wife to cap and of course some spills...here comes the dog...he laps away at the floor and then my freakin bottle filler starts leaking (guess some gunk in the valve?) dog jumps up and starts sucking it like a straw! Needless to say I stopped bottling and cleaned / sanitized my filler and the hose...but at least I know if no one else likes my beer....Henry the dog does

Erythro73 said:

The thought crossed my mind. But then I thought "If Papazian & Palmer wrote to strain the wort before fermenting, there's a reason behind it".

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THere is a reason - the trub can lead to vegetal flavors in your beer if left too long. This really only becomes a concern if you're aging in the carboy, so next time you can just leave it. It will settle to the bottom and you'll leave it behind when you transfer to secondary (if you secondary) or to your bottling bucket.