Cooled Wort Before Sparging

[youcaughtabeer]

Man I feel like a dumb.

I brewed my first 5 gallon batch last night from malt extract. For some reason, I got confused and cooled the wort after boiling it and before sparging. I was quite careful with sanitation, but nonetheless, what kind of chances of contamination/spoiling do I have?

EDIT: I guess I'll stick to jargon I know from now on. The haphazard events of yesternight:

1. Boiled grains for a while according to recipe.
2. Time to add to the fermenter, ha jk, Imma cool the wort for some reason first.
3. Uh oh. Figured out that I shouldn't have cooled the wort before adding to fermenter. Added (somewhat cooled) wort to fermenter + 2 gal water. Ran water through strained grains. Add yeast.
4. Pop lid/fermentation lock on. Cross fingers.

 

[Rockape66]

I'm confused. If you are making an extract batch; what were you sparging?

 

[TTB-J]

Sorry, but I don't think sparging means what you think it means.

 

[youcaughtabeer]

My b. I'm new to the brewing game.

I mean straining out the grains, and then running hot water through the strained grains.

 

[kpr121]

If you boiled the wort while your grains were steeping, be ready for a nice tannin filled astringent beer. You want to steep those in the pot at no higher than 170. When I do a specialty grain brew, I just put the bag in as soon as I start the burners, and pull it out when it get up to 170. Its not necessary to 'sparge' those specialty grains.

 

[emjay]

I'm trying to think of what you might THINK sparging means (it's wrong, and is never done with extract anyways), and I'm baffled.

What the heck happens after boiling but before chilling?

I doubt you're talking about aroma hops. People with CFCs might whirlpool before chilling, but that also seems very unlikely.

So, perhaps you could help me help you by describing what you normally do when you think you're sparging.

And there's no need to give the guy a hard time lol... it's hard to blame him when brewing terminology uses all sorts of weird names for stuff that could be adequately described with a single word that already exists in the English language.

 

[whatsleftofyou]

If you boiled, chilled the wort, AND THEN steeped grains, you're in trouble. Lactobacillus likes to live on barley so odds are that you're going to end up with a sour beer.

 

[Pappers_]

Sound like you were brewing 'extract with steeping grains' style. Take a look at www.howtobrew.com for a good description of what to do when.

 

[whatsleftofyou]

Just read your edit and you definitely have an almost inevitable risk of a lacto infection. For future reference, never let grains touch cooled wort.

 

[youcaughtabeer]

Womp womp.

 

[whatsleftofyou]

Let it ferment out and see what happens, because you never know.

 

[brewit2it]

Just read your edit and you definitely have an almost inevitable risk of a lacto infection. For future reference, never let grains touch cooled wort.

To tell you the truth I still cant really figure out what the OP is describing in his edit, but he clearly says he boiled the grains so I dont think Lacto infection is his greatest concern.

 

[Suited_Up]

Apparently...

Step 1: HACOHB (Case of)

 

[emjay]

2. Time to add to the fermenter, ha jk, Imma cool the wort for some reason first.
3. Uh oh. Figured out that I shouldn't have cooled the wort before adding to fermenter. Added (somewhat cooled) wort to fermenter + 2 gal water. Ran water through strained grains. Add yeast.

You figured out you shouldn't cool the wort before adding it to the fermentor? Where the hell did you hear that?! It's ALWAYS better to chill the wort before adding it to the fermentor.

Oddly enough, the mistakes you DID make have nothing to do with the mistakes you THINK you made.

First off, you are not supposed to boil the grains. That beer is going to have the mouthfeel of sucking on a teabag. If you can't hold your steeping grains at around 155°, you can let it steep as you bring it to a boil but make sure you pull the grains out before you reach 170°.

I went straight to partial mash, so admittedly I'm not the MOST familiar with the method of extract with specialty grains, but I do know that if you're going to rinse the grain into the wort, you should do it BEFORE boiling the wort. And again - don't boil the actual grains!

To tell you the truth I still cant really figure out what the OP is describing in his edit, but he clearly says he boiled the grains so I dont think Lacto infection is his greatest concern.

Before the edit, it wasn't clear.