Chilling issues

[Greyfriar]

I made my second batch of beer last night (Oktoberfest ale), but I haven't yet been able to taste my first batch of beer (German Hefeweizen).

On both batches I've had a lot of issues with cooling. My first batch I used an ice bath to cool the wort, but it still took about 3 hours. For my second batch, I bought a wort chiller (25ft copper wife, 3/8" diameter).

1) When I tried to cool the wort down with the chiller, the clamps I had on the inlet wasn't tight enough and it sprayed water into my wort. I had read about similar issues on here before so I unhooked the water line and reboiled for about a half hour.

2) I was in the process of removing my hop bags and only got one out before cooling the wort initially. This is an issue because I left this bag in during my reboil. It was my Magnum hops for the 60 minute boil (which turned into a 90 minute boil inadvertently). What can I expect because of this, assuming my beer isn't ruined.

3) Even after the wort chiller, I cooled to about 120F or so, then poured my wort from the kettle into my fermenter. I only had about 2 gallons of my original 3 gallons left. I thought I would be able to pour in cool water and get the temp below 75F so I could pitch my yeast, but the temp hung out around 90F forever. I ended up brewing later in the day than I would have wanted, and the reboil took forever as well, so I had to go to bed. I put the fermenter lid on top with an airlock and let the wort cool overnight. I woke up this morning and pitched my yeast.

With all that happened, should I expect this batch to turn out well or all. I know Mr. Papazian would tell me to relax, but right now I can't.

Thoughts?

 

[flars]

1. No problem with tap water entering the hot wort if it was minimal unless it makes you sick when you drink it.

2. Hop oils were most likely fully extracted in the inital boil, if not the increase in IBUs' will not be noticeable.

3. Add cold water to the fermentor before adding the hot wort, especially if you are using a Better Bottle or glass carboy. Chill the expected volume of top off water in the frig or freezer before brew time. Sounds like your tap water is to warm for using a chiller. Using an ice bath to cool the kettle of wort would be the simplest solution. Circulating ice chilled water with a pump is another option.

The way your bew day went, it is called 'no chill brewing'. Keep your fermentation temperature low and your beer most likely will be fine.

 

[zzARzz]

During the summer months when my cold tap water line is a bit warm I'll use a combination of a salted ice water bath and my immersion chiller while stirring the wort in the opposite direction of the IC flow. I can usually get it down to 70F within 20-30 minutes, even on the hottest days.

Once I had the same issue with the clamps on the IC not being tight enough and a bit of tap water leaked into the brew, but it turned out just fine without a reboil. Now I make it part of my brew day regimen to tighten the clamps a bit before using the IC and I haven't had an issue like that since.

 

[Greyfriar]

Thanks for the replies and thanks for putting my mind at ease. I was fearful I was sitting on 5 gallons of unfermentable sugar water.

I live in SC right now and the temps here have been pretty hot, so the water in the chiller may not have been ideal. I'll keep that in mind for my next batch.

 

[Greyfriar]

Update on this batch:
A couple of weeks ago I moved to secondary so I could start a third batch. When I opened the primary, the headspace was filled with a strong vinegar odor, but after the initial shock, the beer itself didn't seem to smell bad. I did quite a bit of browsing the forums and that didn't necessarily seem to be a batch killer. So I've let it set in the secondary now hoping that will clean up some of the issues.

What happened next though is that my AC went out. The temps inside my house were at 80-85F for about 3 days, during the daytime. Will this have any adverse affects on the beer? I just smelled the beer and it still has a vinegar odor to it. I was just about to note that I thoroughly cleaned all my equipment with sanitizer until I noticed that I bought "Easy Clean No Rinse Powdered Cleanser."

After further review, this stuff shouldn't be used as the sanitizing agent. I know a small amount of this material got into my fermenter as well, which could be an issue.

I'm afraid I'm going to have to scrap this batch, but I would like some other opinions before I go that route.

 

[zzARzz]

Temperature issues are the most damaging during primary so the fact that you already had the batch in secondary shouldn't have affected it too much. Have you tasted it yet? You may want to take a hydrometer reading and see if it is around your projected final gravity or well below it (which would suggest a nasty infection) and take a few sips of the sample. If it makes you want to vomit then it may be worth pitching, but if the gravity seems okay and it is tolerable it may be worth keeping and aging a bit longer than you planned to see if the green beer funk drops out of it. I've made a few batches that were disgusting when they were young but turned out to be some of my favorites after an additional month or two of secondary and/or bottle conditioning.