Effect of adding 3rd runnings as top off water

Hey guys. I did my 2nd all grain tonight. I really planned on doing mostly grain with DME to bring me to the proper OG, but this low gravity brew didn't need it.

I filled my boil kettle to its safe capacity (7 gal) and had some left over wort from the sparge. It was 1.014 (temp adjusted) so I put it in the fridge.

When I chilled the wort, I ended up with 5 gal in the primary, and added about two quarts of this chilled, non-boiled, sparged wort figuring at least it had sugar in it.

What are the pros and cons of this addition? You ever done it? Any reason I shouldn't do it?

I would think you should have added it to the boil at the end, there might be a small chance it isn't 100% sterilized, but it will probably be fine, maybe some else will add to your question, and let us know how it turns out, good luck.

Chill haze, astringency, and most scary of all, lactic infection. Those are the three cons I can think of.

If you want some idea of what is lurking in your mash tun, dump your spent grains in a garbage bag, tie it up, then smell the contents a few days later.

Remember that scene from Raiders of The Lost Ark?... When they open the ark of the covenant? It's a bit like that.

You will probably be fine, but saul's right, you could get chill haze and possible lactic infection. All kinds of nasties grow on grain but we never worry about it because we boil it for an hour. In fact you're never supposed to grind grain in the same place you ferment because of possible lacto-infections. To further saul's analogy, right now you're at the point where Belloq says "It's beautiful!" but in a few weeks your brew could be to the point where it melts your face off like Dietrich.

That being said, I'm pretty sure it'll be OK. There's way more beer yeast in there than anything else, so it should work out fine. If it doesn't well, there's plenty of styles that use lacto as a flavoring agent, it could even taste better that way!

I don't want to have to make a post saying that I just dumped my beer.. That's why I would never do somthing like that.

Thanks. I guess I should have thought it through a little more. To think that I spent a fair amount of time siphoning the wort off of the cold break thinking how clear my beer is going to be. I didn't want to waste any sugar that I had worked to obtain.

Oh well. Sounds like chill haze would be an o.k. option compared to astringency or lactic infection.

I'm off to RDWHAHB now.

I hope it works out, but grain is covered in lacto and sparge water is probably not hot enough to kill it. I would drink this one quick personally.

Well, I kegged it today. It is young, but I wanted to take your advice and get it in the fridge sooner than later.

It smells great and tastes great (for uncarbed green beer), so hopefully I'm in the clear.

Won't do that again. The suspense has been killing me

Not to mention no boil means no DMS was boiled out of the wort...thus you may end up with cooked cabbage/vegetable off flavors in the finished beer. Only time will tell if it 'harmed' the beer or not.