Bottled and another newbie mistake

Cinci-Brewing · Apr 16, 2010

Just bottled my first 5 gallon batch this morning, the Cooper's Irish Stout. Like a newbie and not knowing better, didn't take the airlock off and i think it might of sucked a little bit of water into the fermenter when bottling the first bottle.

Could this contaminate my beer, anything i should be concerned about?.

I'm going to carbonate for 2 weeks then cold condition for 1 week, then i will know for sure.

EonBlue66 · Apr 16, 2010

It takes more than that to ruin a beer. I'm sure most of us have done it at some point without any problems. Be sure to set a bottle aside to taste a couple months down the road you'll be glad you did!

Cheers!

CampfireBrewingCo · Apr 16, 2010

Are you bottling directly out of your fermenter?

Special Hops · Apr 16, 2010

no worries. I have done that on more then one occasion. It should be fine.

FreeM80s · Apr 16, 2010

Cinci-Brewing said:
Just bottled my first 5 gallon batch this morning, the Cooper's Irish Stout. Like a newbie and not knowing better, didn't take the airlock off and i think it might of sucked a little bit of water into the fermenter when bottling the first bottle.

Could this contaminate my beer, anything i should be concerned about?.

I'm going to carbonate for 2 weeks then cold condition for 1 week, then i will know for sure.

yea, you'll be ok. next time you might want to use some kind of cheap liquor in your airlock. I like aristocrat vodka :mug:

remilard · Apr 16, 2010

It is likely not a problem. You want to find an airlock fluid that is sanitary (and will stay that way) and won't cause flavor problems in reasonable amounts if it gets sucked in. Like others have mentioned, bottom shelf vodka works fine. I like to use star-san, which is a sanitizer manufactured by five star and available in homebrew stores. It does not cause any flavor problems at low concentrations so if it gets sucked in, big deal. Some of the other sanitizers (eg iodophors) have a stronger flavor.