Water from ice bath got into fermenter....

Whoops.

I was verrrry careful today, everything was going fine until 1) had a big boilover, lost probably 1/4 cup of wort. Pissed me off a bit but not a big deal.

After a good vigorous 10 minute boil (that's all I did since I was using a Cooper's can kit of English Bitter), I emersed the pot into an ice bath in the sink. Had the top-off water sitting outside in the ~40F degree temps, ready to top off the wort until the 5 gallon mark. Perfect.

And then I pull the pot out of the ice bath, and I hovered over the fermenter.....drops of water from the ice bath dropped into the fermenter!!!! I was furious with myself, but what can I do, it's done. Anyone else ever do this, and what was the result?

I'm pissed but there's nothing I can do about it. Capped the bucket, put on the airlock and carried it downstairs. Hopefully I don't have a bucket of pond water in two weeks.

I am confused. Was it tap water with chlorine and ice in it or did you go out to the frozen pond and get it?

RDWHAHB.

Ha, no pond water (that was a reference to a batch that ends up full of bacteria). The sink was full of chlorine-filled tap water and some medical ice packs (the kind you get out of the freezer and put on your neck or sore muscle or whatever). I put those packs in the ice bath to supplement the ice....I doubt they were sanitary.

It sucks but hopefully the few drops that ended up in the bucket don't kill the batch. I read a thread on here about a guy dropping a hair brush into a fermenter and the beer turned out fine. There are few things less sanitary than a hair brush!

To put this into perspective, a few drops of water, even if chock full of bacteria and wild yeast, will probably not make a difference when you pitch a good glug of yeast. There are billions and billions of yeast cells getting pitched and they'll overwhelm the beasts in the few drops of water. It's a battle that the yeast will most likely win.

Infections come most often from poor sanitation. If you were meticulous with your post-boil sanitation, you should be just fine. Keeping mind, though, that your batch may not be the best beer ever brewed. If this is the case, it's more than likely caused by lots of other variables that homebrewers tighten up with experience, rather than an infection.

Keep at it and enjoy the fruits of your labours. Good luck.

I came here excepcting a full gallon of bathtub water to have found its way into your wort (would still have advised to ride it out). If you are furious with yourself for a few drops, you need to relax. There is probably more wild yeast and bacteria in the ambiant air that make their way into the wort/beer* from all the time it is uncovered during transfering and bottling than in a few drops of CHLORINATED water. If you've ever gone camping and needed to decontaminate water, you would know that you need very little chlorine and very little time to make disgusting pond water drinkable to man. People get suckback from their airlocks all the time, sometimes with plain potable water in them and they don't get infections from that. I top off with water straight from my tap.

You could do a lot worse.

* A lot of crap, dust particles, airborne nasties and the like fall into the beer during that time. It doesn't mean that they actually do anything, since beer is a pretty hostile environement compared to many other foodstuff.

Relax.

Whatever was in the tap water was most likely killed by the chlorine in the water.

Whatever was ON the sink and ON the pot was most likely killed by the chlorinated water.

Whatever was on the Ice packs was most likely killed by being frozen and then dipped in chlorinated water.

If they are not dead yet, they are surely weakened and the yeast army will enjoy the extra protein.

I did something similar. Had a no boil kit, i was dumping the wort into the carboy, and the box must have been sitting in some water on the counter, as i was dumping it i saw some water dripping off the bottom of the box into the carboy. I was in the same boat you are now, thought i ruined the whole batch. It turned out to be the best brew i have done to date. RDWHAHB

Thank you, gentlemen. Sounds like things will be fine. I'll update here once I crack one open.

If you've been anal, and I mean anal, about everything else, the risks of infection are usually very, very low.

fanch75 said:

Thank you, gentlemen. Sounds like things will be fine. I'll update here once I crack one open.

Click to expand...

Update (as promised) -

Beer is GREAT. Used 2 pounds of sugar and this batch of Coopers English Bitter turned out terrific.

Well... for the most part all of my batches have been cooled by putting my kettle in snow i shoveled into a bin... and then filled with tap water... there is always leaves and grass and whatnot left behind, and i'm sure a couple drops of snow water probably roll off the kettle into the fermenter. It's kind of inevitable. Have yet to have a problem with any of my batches.