captainjuice
New Member
Hello homebrewers,
Last night I brewed my second batch ever, so I'm still a n00b. Combine that with the fact that the brew went relatively late into the night, I'd had a few beers, and my roommate/assistant passed out during the boil, and perhaps it's not surprising that I ran into a problem (or two). I know, I know, it should be expected. Anyway, here's what happened:
The boil went very smoothly, I cooled the wort as quickly as I could in the sink with ice water, funneled into my glass primary fermenter, aerated the wort, and pitched the yeast (dry Safale). So far, so good, but then came the terrible idea to take an OG reading (since I had not done that yet). This is where the two problems happened.
Problem #1: Using a thief after pitching the yeast, I obviously picked up some of the yeast with the thief that I wasn't able to return to the wort in a sanitized way, so had to lose that yeast. (Yes, I realize what a stupid idea this was; I should have taken the OG reading before pitching, but oh well, I will definitely not repeat this mistake!) From what I've read, this is probably not a huge problem, although it's less than ideal... I've read that dry yeast packets tend to contain enough yeast cells that it should be alright fermentation-wise. I think the biggest consequence might be minor off-flavors from the yeast spending more energy reproducing and less producing alcohol from the sugar? I'm not an expert, clearly, so this is just what I've gleaned from reading different posts on here and other sites. It's been 12 hours in the fermenter, and I can see the krausen forming (and a pretty constant bubble rate in the airlock FWIW). So I think it will be alright, but would appreciate any advice onthis.
Problem #2: The more serious problem... When I dropped my hydrometer into the thief, the bottom broke. But I didn't realize that at first. I took an OG reading in the thief (obviously not an accurate one in retrospect!). I was doing this right over the fermentor (immediately after taking the sample, I just raised the thief up until it was just outside the carboy), and the little plastic piece that you push in to release the liquid must not have been all the way out, as the sample leaked back into the carboy (the bottom of the thief was aimed right in the opening of the carboy still). Now, ordinarily, I don't think this would be a huge deal as everything had been sanitized. But, after the sample leaked back in, that's when I realized the hydrometer had broken. I pulled the thief and hydrometer away, then immediately sealed the carboy up. The problem is that it's possible that the little beads and/or very small pieces of glass could have made it into the carboy... but I really don't know for sure as I didn't see any go in.
I've searched through related forum answers (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/hydrometer-broke-my-carboy-my-beer-ruined-335898/, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/broke-hydrometer-143448/, http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/1e35vz/broken_hydrometer_in_wort/, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/broken-hydrometer-123115/, http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18687) and have come away as confused as ever. Definitely the conservative thing to do would be to toss it all. But that's hard for me to do as I just don't know for sure anything got in there in the first place, it's just a possibility...and it's tough to toss away $30 and/or potentially delicious beer. It seems like the next best bet to tossing everything would be to leave an extra 1/4 - 1/2 gallon or so at the bottom of the primary when racking to the secondary (and to filter the siphon). And maybe even do the same when racking to my bottling bucket.
What do you guys think? I know that similar questions have been posed, and I don't mean to be asking an already-answered question, but it seems like there's so much uncertainty and disagreement in what I've read that I really don't know what's best to do. Also, if I do end up keeping it, what's the best way to filter the siphon?
I appreciate any and all advice. Thanks!
Last night I brewed my second batch ever, so I'm still a n00b. Combine that with the fact that the brew went relatively late into the night, I'd had a few beers, and my roommate/assistant passed out during the boil, and perhaps it's not surprising that I ran into a problem (or two). I know, I know, it should be expected. Anyway, here's what happened:
The boil went very smoothly, I cooled the wort as quickly as I could in the sink with ice water, funneled into my glass primary fermenter, aerated the wort, and pitched the yeast (dry Safale). So far, so good, but then came the terrible idea to take an OG reading (since I had not done that yet). This is where the two problems happened.
Problem #1: Using a thief after pitching the yeast, I obviously picked up some of the yeast with the thief that I wasn't able to return to the wort in a sanitized way, so had to lose that yeast. (Yes, I realize what a stupid idea this was; I should have taken the OG reading before pitching, but oh well, I will definitely not repeat this mistake!) From what I've read, this is probably not a huge problem, although it's less than ideal... I've read that dry yeast packets tend to contain enough yeast cells that it should be alright fermentation-wise. I think the biggest consequence might be minor off-flavors from the yeast spending more energy reproducing and less producing alcohol from the sugar? I'm not an expert, clearly, so this is just what I've gleaned from reading different posts on here and other sites. It's been 12 hours in the fermenter, and I can see the krausen forming (and a pretty constant bubble rate in the airlock FWIW). So I think it will be alright, but would appreciate any advice onthis.
Problem #2: The more serious problem... When I dropped my hydrometer into the thief, the bottom broke. But I didn't realize that at first. I took an OG reading in the thief (obviously not an accurate one in retrospect!). I was doing this right over the fermentor (immediately after taking the sample, I just raised the thief up until it was just outside the carboy), and the little plastic piece that you push in to release the liquid must not have been all the way out, as the sample leaked back into the carboy (the bottom of the thief was aimed right in the opening of the carboy still). Now, ordinarily, I don't think this would be a huge deal as everything had been sanitized. But, after the sample leaked back in, that's when I realized the hydrometer had broken. I pulled the thief and hydrometer away, then immediately sealed the carboy up. The problem is that it's possible that the little beads and/or very small pieces of glass could have made it into the carboy... but I really don't know for sure as I didn't see any go in.
I've searched through related forum answers (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f39/hydrometer-broke-my-carboy-my-beer-ruined-335898/, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/broke-hydrometer-143448/, http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/1e35vz/broken_hydrometer_in_wort/, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/broken-hydrometer-123115/, http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18687) and have come away as confused as ever. Definitely the conservative thing to do would be to toss it all. But that's hard for me to do as I just don't know for sure anything got in there in the first place, it's just a possibility...and it's tough to toss away $30 and/or potentially delicious beer. It seems like the next best bet to tossing everything would be to leave an extra 1/4 - 1/2 gallon or so at the bottom of the primary when racking to the secondary (and to filter the siphon). And maybe even do the same when racking to my bottling bucket.
What do you guys think? I know that similar questions have been posed, and I don't mean to be asking an already-answered question, but it seems like there's so much uncertainty and disagreement in what I've read that I really don't know what's best to do. Also, if I do end up keeping it, what's the best way to filter the siphon?
I appreciate any and all advice. Thanks!
