First time brew - noob questions

[JDStraughan]

Hello all!

I'm in my first ever homebrew, an Ocktoberfest, all malt, from extract kit.

I've made a few mistakes along the way already.

Process so far:

Star San'ed everything like crazy. Boiled my water (2 gal), followed directions, added to remaining ~3 gals of cold water to equal 5 in fermenter. Fermenter is 6.5 gal glass carboy, also sanitized like madman.

(I've since acquired an 8 gal kettle, so next brew will be full 5 gal wort.)

Mistake 1 - before transfer, after boil, I accidentally put my hand in the (partially) chilled wort. Hand had been in star san solution. Issue?

Directions on kit said to pitch yeast when wort < 90F, so I pitched at like 85F. I've since been reading this is bad advice, and I should have waited for lower temps. Looking forward to interesting tastes. This was mistake 2.

Mistake 3: Hops were pellets. My funnel was small, and I ended up syphoning the wort from kettle to carboy, leaving all hop remains behind. Will this make my beer taste worse?

12 hours later:

Fermenter had 3" of foamy head, airlock going nuts

24 hours later:

Head down to 2" or so, airlock steady (1 bump / sec)

36 hours later:

Head down some, little airlock activity.

72 hours later:

Almost 0 head, little to no visible airlock activity.

Current (9 days later)

Still has some "crud" floating on top (hop pieces?) and some bubbles on top. Some "stuffs" are still floating around in the beer, but not as fast and vigorous as they were during heavy fermenting.

Kit said to bottle after 7 to 10 days. This does not look ready to my novice eyes, and I'm a bit concerned about the bubbles on top. They are small, and are not furry like the infection pics I see online.

My questions:

Did I ruin my beer?
If not, when to bottle?

Also, thanks for all the great posts I've been reading over for weeks. This site has been amazing. I look forward to this first batch, and many more homebrew experiences.

 

[boydster]

Take a deep breath and relax, because of the 3 mistakes you listed at the beginning, none of them are necessarily Earth-shattering. StarSan soaked hand in the wort - no big deal (don't make it a habit, but sometimes stuff happens and you just have to roll with it). Hop pellets transferred into the fermentor - also no big deal. Pitching at 85 - not ideal, but salvageable. More importantly: after pitching, did you do anything to bring the temperature down into somewhere near the mid 60's?

Regardless, you have made beer and you are probably going to enjoy this one. You never forget your first. Give it 2 weeks in primary, take a couple gravity readings over a 3 day period and if it is stable you can bottle it up. Then you'll want to leave it for at least 3 weeks at 70F before you put one in the fridge to cool off and sample. As long as the carb level is good, you can put the rest in the fridge or you can leave them out at room temperature if the flavor needs more time to condition.

The most important things to focus on for your next several brew days: Sanitation, pitch rate, temp control, and patience. Get those under control and you'll be making some great beer really soon.

 

[rodwha]

"You never forget your first."

This is true! I didn't understand fermentation temps and fermented at room temp. I created so much fusel alcohol that just 2-3 beers would give one hell-of-a hangover! I try to forget, but it's just not possible.

We do seem to learn best from our mistakes it seems!

The only concern is having dropped your temp to the 60's. At the very least for the first few days if not week. I usually keep mine quite low for a full 3-4 weeks.

 

[JDStraughan]

Thanks for the feedback.

I'll give it another few days and start doing some readings.

It was down to 68 within a day or so. Been 66-68 ever since.

I just got into a 8 Gal kettle, will be getting a wort chiller for next batch. Have a Irish Stout (all malt kit) sitting in standby.

Once I pop one of these bad boys (in a month or so), I'll let you guys now if they killed me. If you don't hear from me, they were amazing.

 

[rodwha]