Did I contaminate my first beer/Should I dry hop

[brewinginct]

My first beer has been fermenting for 8 days now and I just tested the gravity. I cleaned my wine thief with soap and water and then sterilized it in bleach water for 30 minutes. I only cleaned the hydrometer/hydrometer tube with soap and water because I didn't plan on dumping the wort that I tested back into the primary bucket.

I only stuck my hydrometer halfway into the primary bucket so that I didn't get any yeast in my sample and I did this about three times before I realize: the tip of my wine thief is touching the inside of my hydrometer test tube every time I empty it, that the inside of said tube hasn't been sterilized, and that the tip of the wine thief was dipped back into my fermenting beer two times after touching the hydrometer tube.

Did I just contaminate my first beer by doing this? It's such a small point of contact but it seems like that might be all it takes. Am I worrying about nothing?


Second question: According to the hydrometer reading my beer still has a little bit more to go before the fermentation is done. It's almost there, maybe a few more days and it'll be done. It tastes pretty good so far, but it's still pretty sweet tasting. This is probably because it's not done fermenting but so far this beer is lacking the floral/grapefruit/citrus taste I was shooting for.

I'm now transferring from primary to a secondary glass carboy and dry hopping. If I drop hop in the secondary will this achieve that hoppy finish I am shooting for? And if so, what hops would people recommend I use? Maybe more cascade hops? My recipe is posted below. Thanks in advance!

-6 lbs. 9 oz. of Light/Pale Malt Extract Syrup
-3 lbs. Light Dry Malt Extract
-8 oz. Caramel/American Crystal 80L
-1 oz. Pilgrim hops
-1 oz. Columbus Hops
-2 oz. Cascade Hops

 

[android]

1) you're fine, don't worry.

2) it's hard to evaluate hop flavor and aroma without carbonation in my opinion, especially aroma. you will definitely get a better aroma and some flavor out of dry hopping. i would recommend roughly an ounce or two with cascade, centennial, columbus, or amarillo. or a mix of 2 or 3 of those hops.

 

[TipsyDragon]

your going to have to try allot harder than that to contaminate your beer. by this point the yeast have a strangle hold on the wort and will beat out anything that may or may not have gotten in when you took your sample. also by this point there are very little fermentable sugars for anything new to eat and the alcohol content will be high enough to kill pretty much anything you need to worry about.

at this point your beer is way green. don't judge a beer's taste for at least 2 months after brewing. also like android said it is flat. carbonation will affect the taste of your beer greatly.

 

[FreeM80s]

give your beer a little more time to ferment. you have a good bit of malt in there. what kind of yeast did you use? yes, for the floral/citrus taste to be very present you need to dry hop. I would use whichever hops you used near the end of the boil for your flavor additions. What was your hop schedule?

 

[starrfish]

first batch jitters! your fine! test again in 2-3 days. Should be good to bottle over the weekend. What was your gravity on this test?

 

[Dave11980]

@TipsyDragon,

If your beer lasts 2 months after brewing your not drinking enough. Or maybe your brewing too much, if there is such a thing.

It doesn't take too many good batches for you to stop worrying about those stomach drop moments like that. I just put my hydrometer straight in the wort to check and I've completely forgotten to sanitize it before. That was a "oh crap" moment for sure but beer was good.

 

[starrfish]

Missed second half of question...

Don't dry hop your first batch... get a good idea what your boil schedules do before starting to dry hopping. Play more with hop addition times in boil... for your next few batches. then do a dry hop and compare side by side with something that you made that was similar and not dry hopped. You'll then better understand what dry hopping really is, and when and where it's best used. my 2¢

 

[Dave11980]

I'm going to throw out there that you should hold off on dry hopping too. I've been doing the 5 gal batch with 1/1/1 oz at 60/15/5 and haven't been upset with the hoppyness yet so you might be plenty pleased without dry hopping, at least for a while.