Distilled water in brew?

[MattyMat]

Hi all- brand new to the brewing process and the forum. Question about using distilled water in my brew. I'm making a red ale, partial grain. I didn't realize at the time of my boil (about 12 days ago) that distilled water was a no-no. I've since been trying to educate myself on the process, and came across the part about distilled water not having sufficient nutrients for the yeast. OK. Got it. The question is, should I just chuck the brew, or continue on to the bottling process?

My OG was 1.05, and my gravity upon racking to the secondary was 1.01 (After about 4 days in the primary). I'm now 8 days into my secondary, and I have seen no action in the airlock from the secondary. Is my red ale "Dead in the (distilled) Water"?
Thanks in advance!

 

[nealf]

No, your beer will be fine. If you used some extract it will contain some amount of the necessary nutrients for fermentation. Distilled water is really only a "no-no" for all-grain brewing; and even then I doubt it will completely inhibit yeast growth/fermentation, it will just make the yeasts job harder.

 

[llazy_llama]

A few notes:

1: RDWHAHB. Give it some time, patience is your greatest tool in homebrewing.

2: RDWHAHB. Odds are, it'll probably be fine, distilled water or no. If your SG is dropping, the yeast are obviously doing their thing.

3: 4 Days in primary is super short. I know the temptation is huge, and you want to taste that brew, but let the yeast have time to do their thing. As an absolute minimum, remember the 1-2-3 rule. That's 1 week in the primary, 2 weeks in secondary, 3 weeks in bottles. Of course, that's just a bare minimum, and longer waits will generally reap better rewards. That leads us to...

4: Don't listen to that airlock, it has no clue what it's talking about. When the SG has stopped dropping, and remains constant over at least 2-3 days, then it's ready to rack to secondary. Also, since you racked to secondary so quickly, you're going to want to give it some extra time. Whatever yeast are left in there are going to take a while to get back into the game and finish fermenting. Expect a slow start, and little to no airlock activity in that secondary. Just give it time (a few weeks, I'd say) then start checking that SG.

 

[MattyMat]

Great! thanks guys. I will wait it out. I've got a partial mash recipe for a Vanilla Ale that I'm brewing today. I will use spring water!