First brew

My 5 Gallon brew kit calls for 2-3 gallons of water to boil. I have a 4 gallon pot. Does it effect the taste of the beer if I do 2 rather than 3 gallons of wort?

 

It messes a little bit with your hop efficiency but otherwise, no problem.

 

So everything went perfect until I went to put the airlock in, then the black grommet fell into my 5 gallions of brew. I had to stick my arm in it to get it out. Hope I didn't contaminate it

 

Star San your arm

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I used the cleaner the kit came with (B- Bright) and cleaned up my arm rinsed then stuck it in and got the grommet.

 

I would keep a few grommets around in case it happens again...and it will. It is good practice to try and keep large body parts out of your wort, but chances are you'll be ok. Once you pitch your yeast, they will multiply and overcome most any other wee beastie in there.

 

Hey, these are the lessons you never forget. God knows I've had my share. My magnetic stir bar is sitting in a bucket of fermenting beer right now. Lesson learned.

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put the air lock in the lid before you but the lid on the bucket in the future

 

I have just kept my old bottles to use can I also reuse the caps or do I need to get new bottle caps?

 

new caps, don't use twist off bottles either.

 

Nope, can't reuse bottle caps. Sorry.

 

So tonight I moved my brew from the primary Fermenter to the secondary. Everything looked great smelled amazing. I was being overly concerned about sanitation so I put some Star San in the carboy and swashed it around. I know everyone says you don't need to rinse that sanitizer so I did not. Did I screw anything up by doing that? Their was a lot of bubbles in the carboy when I started to fill it.

 

No. Starsan is ok to use without rinsing. I don't think sanitizing the carboy is overly concerned about sanitation. It's a necessary step.

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The question of 2 gallons versus 3 would probably somewhat affect taste and the alcohol concentration. If you have the same amount of alcohol in less liquid, it's going to be a little stronger. As for any question about sanitization, it's better to be safe than sorry. Definitely use new caps for each bottling day. Not only does it potentially reduce the possibility for contamination, but it can prolong the life of your beer!

 

What kind of beer are you doing for your first beer? I just did my first last month. It was a brown ale from extract and grains. I ended up pretty pleased with how it turned out. I am starting an English special bitter tomorrow from extract and crystal malt. I too was really worried about how my first batch would turn out and kept constantly thinking I had messed it up.

 

I kept it simple with a American Ale from Grape and Granery here in akron. Doing a Wheat beer kit next.