What are the chances that I ruined my beer?

[mattman91]

Last weekend I had the easiest/quickest brew day ever. Everything went perfectly.

Last night as I was laying in bed, something hit me. I realized that when I transferred my wort from my Anvil Foundry to my fermenter, I did so by simply opening the valve to let it drop in to the fermonster. By doing so I got excellent aeration, but I may have contaminated the wort as I did not use sanitizer on the valve.

Did I have a royal screw up, or should I RDWAHAHB?

 

[Barbarossa]

I'm pretty sure the boil heated up the valve enough.

And even if a small infection was hiding in the valve, it might not be powerful enough to overpower the yeast infection.

 

[mattman91]

I'm pretty sure the boil heated up the valve enough.

And even if a small infection was hiding in the valve, it might not be powerful enough to overpower the yeast infection.

Great, that is what I was thinking. Just wanted to make sure. I guess it would behoove me to spray some sanitizer on the valve next time just to be extra safe.

Thanks!

 

[Immocles]

I forget to spritz the valve of my mash & boil better than half of my brews and have yet to encounter anything. I’ve started to try and remember to hang my spray bottle next to it, though.

 

[ajm163]

shouldent need to sanitize from the mash to the boil, because well you will be boiling and that will kill anything that could have been in there

 

[mattman91]

shouldent need to sanitize from the mash to the boil, because well you will be boiling and that will kill anything that could have been in there

Right, but I'm concerned about the outside part of the valve that isn't touching the boiling wort.

 

[Barbarossa]

Did you recirculate? If you did use the pump, a 150f wort would be enough to kill the infection.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that bacteria are rapidly killed at temperatures above 149°F (65°C)."

 

[mattman91]

Did you recirculate? If you did use the pump, a 150f wort would be enough to kill the infection.

"The World Health Organization (WHO) notes that bacteria are rapidly killed at temperatures above 149°F (65°C)."

Ahh, yes I did. I mashed at 151 or 152. I thought It would have needed to be at least 170 or so. I feel a lot better now, thanks!

 

[iamninjabob]

Infections are scary, but I'd like to tell you a story. One beautiful sunny brew day me and my brew partner spent a lot of time and money on a beautiful batch of beer. We also enjoyed our previous batch while doing so.... My brew partner ended up dropping the garden hose in the wort on accident when disconnecting the wort chiller. That beer had no infection, and so far none of my beers have. I know the RDWAHAHB thing gets thrown around, but it's good advice.

 

[Barbarossa]

One thing I learned from this forum.

It's hard to **** up a brew but it's also hard to make an amazing brew.

 

[Joeywhat]

It's also helpful to keep in mind that infections aren't dangerous to your health. They often make the beer taste bad, but that's it. So go ahead and let it ride and give it a taste and see how it is. A lot of good beers have been made due to some wild beasties sneaking in and souring things. If you're not sure if it's infected or not just let it ride a bit and when it's stopped doing its thing you can move on with the process and give it a taste before you attempt to package it or secondary it, etc.

 

[Joeywhat]

One thing I learned from this forum.

It's hard to **** up a brew but it's also hard to make an amazing brew.

And when you do hit one out of the park, you probably forgot to take notes... BTDT

 

[Alex4mula]

I forget to spritz the valve of my mash & boil better than half of my brews and have yet to encounter anything. I’ve started to try and remember to hang my spray bottle next to it, though.

About 40 brews ago I stopped sanitizing my valve too.

 

[seatazzz]

Oh crap I'm supposed to sanitize the valve too??? (100+batchesin/neversanitizedthevalves/2infectionsfromothervectors/Imakegoodbeer/nosoap/Iusealotofhotwaterthough/anyonegettingtiredofthis/i'mnot/lol).

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Unless the wort was in the lower 70s F, more of a worry is adding oxygen to the wort at the wrong time.

 

[sugarayny]

You are good due to the temps. The biggest issue is what tobor stated BUT I have have personaly found no issue with aeration before fermentation issues. So enjoy the brew and learn! Cheers

 

[Andres Falconer]

I have had all kinds of accidents, slips and sanitation blunders in my not-so-long home brewing career, but I am still alive and have yet to brew a batch that is ruined by poor sanitation. My experience is that any bugs you pick up (along with other things you want to control, like water profile, the health of your yeast, aeration etc.) will have a significant influence on the final result, and will be especially noticeable if you are aiming for a specific classic style, or trying to repeat a successful batch. But you will hardly ever end up with bad beer, even when you think you've screwed up or you've had to cut some corners.

 

[Tobor_8thMan]

Oxygenation may come back to haunt a little later... I would not wait/delay consuming the homebrew.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

I had a fly get in my wort after cooling one time and had no issues with infection. If you are pitching plenty of yeast the chance of infection is pretty slim

 

[seatazzz]

I had a fly get in my wort after cooling one time and had no issues with infection. If you are pitching plenty of yeast the chance of infection is pretty slim

+1 to the above. Yeast tend to be a lot more hardy than your average infection bacterium and will beat the crap out of them 9 times out of 10, as long as you pitch plenty of healthy yeast cells. I would say most bad infections occur due to either poor sanitation, underpitching yeast, or in some cases pitching yeast on too-hot wort, where most of the yeast cells die before they can get started, and whatever other bacteria that may have snuck in take over. There's a saying that goes, Know yeast, know beer; No yeast, NO beer!!