First batch. Wow that was scary.

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aidanpryde18

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Well, I've got my first batch in the Primary now.

I've wanted to brew beer for a long time, but have always been hesitant. Well, I took some birthday money and bought myself a Brewer's Best starter kit and a Hefeweizen beer kit.

Everything went fine for the most part, I made sure to keep everything as sterile as possible. Sinkful of water with no-rinse that everything would go into and out of. Boiled and cooled the water that I added to the fermenter after I boiled the malt.

Got everything cooled and mixed and put the lid on the fermenter. I made a mistake and put the airlock in with Vodka already in it. When I pushed the airlock into the lid, it forced air into the airlock and when I let it go some of the vodka got sucked back in. I know this isn't a big problem, but it's where the problem I might have started.

When I looked at the airlock, I realized that the black rubber gasket on the hole in the lid had slid most of the way into the bucket. I pulled the airlock out and tried to pull the gasket back through the hole, but as I was trying it, the gasket fell into the wort.

SO I tried to fish it out with a sterilized slotted spoon, but no luck. So finally, desperate to get the lid on, I went in and soaked my hand in sterilizer for about 30 seconds, then let it air off a little bit. I dipped my hand in the wort and fished the gasket out as quickly as possible. I went and sterilized the lid, airlock and gasket and put everything back on, only correctly this time.

How much trouble do you all think that I'm in? What chance do I have that this batch isn't infected?

Thanks for all of your help. I really hope everything comes out fine, because I'm looking forward to some fresh beer in a couple of weeks.
 
I'm still a noob to good brewing practices myself, but I have brewed a good few extract kits. When I first started I added plain tap water as top off water and thought the brew was excellent. The key is that the beer yeast takes a strong hold before any baddies you may have introduced.

I doubt you ruined the beer and as you'll have no real frame of reference I'd just not worry and move on to the next batch.
 
Beer is far more forgiving than new brewers think. You will be fine, your beer will be fine and in a few weeks you'll be enjoying something you created.
 
First of all, Welcome to homebrewing! There's a huge downside to homebrewing though, it's ridiculously addicitive.

Hilarious story - I had to dip my arm in my freshly cooled once to retrieve a buddy's cell phone (phone was sticky but it powered back up after a good washing & drying)

You've definitely upped your chances for infection but you'll prob be fine.
 
RDWHAHB

The vodka will only up the abv, no harm there.

You sanitized the lid (pre-gasket falling in), so the black rubber gasket was also sanitized, and you said that everything you put in the wort past that was sanitized, so you should be fine.
 
Congratulations, you're the 1,000,000,000,000th homebrewer to do exactly that! Your prize: a batch of beer that will be just fine!

Even people who have done this without sanitizing their hands first have generally been fine. You took that extra step, and kudos to you for it. You're fine, your beer is fine, everything is fine. As Douglas Adams said, "Don't Panic!"
 
I think many people here will chime in and say just to wait it out and see. I've read other posts here where people dipped their whole sanitized arm in and turned out with a perfectly find brew. There's even a thread here where someone tried to make a batch where they did everything WRONG and it still turned out fine. I'm a newbie too, but I'm quickly learning beer is pretty forgiving.

no point in worrying now. Just wait the allotted amount of weeks and taste it to find out if there was any infection. It's the only way to really tell.
I give you props on actually sanitizing your arm. I would have been way to impatient and just dunked my whole body in and gone diving for it. :D

---edit---
and about 50 people beat me in their replies :p
 
How much trouble do you all think that I'm in? What chance do I have that this batch isn't infected?

Pretty high odds that you're okay. No way to know until you wait it out, though.

Next time, let the rubber ring stay in the bucket and cover the hole with sanitized tinfoil.
 
As long as you don't have these arms...I think you're fine.

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I guess I'll have to not worry and have store-bought since this is my first batch, but thanks for the votes of confidence. I figured I was worrying too much, but it's nice to hear that others have done the same and everything turned out fine.

Now it's just the agony of waiting, but it will be worth it I'm sure.

Thanks again.
 
Your beer will now taste like arm.

:) As the others have said, don't worry. Get yourself a beer to help quell your fears.

-Joe
 
Well, 4 hours later, and I already have some slow bubbling, so at least I know I didn't mess up too bad.
 
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